Sins and Sunshine
by Mina'sMadness
Summary: Minari recently moved from Suna to Konoha to begin a new life. Everything was fine. She made friends and led a happy and normal ninja life. Yep, everything seemed perfect - if it wasn't for her annoyingly persistent past that wouldn't let go of her!
1. The new one

Hey there! This is the first chapter of my first story here, so please have mercy with me. ^-^

Oh and can someone please tell me how to make these lines? It don't really get it...

(imagine invisible line here...)

**Sins and Sunshine**

Chapter 1: The new one

Tic tic tic...

In silence I watched the clock on the wall in front of me while standing in the hallway of my new school. The teacher told me to wait here till he gives me the signal to come in. Does he want me to make an dramatic entrance or what?

"Good morning class. From today on we have a new transfer student. She just recently moved to Konoha so please get along with her.", I heard Iruka-sensei announcing to my new class.

I thought that was my cue to enter and so I did.

The classroom was bright thanks to the windows that make out the whole length of the wall.

I was standing there starring for quite a while so everyone began to whisper.

"Would you introduce yourself to the class please?", Iruka-sensei asked. I looked up to him realizing that I've been zoning out.

"Uh, sure." I said then turned to my new class.

"My name's Takanaki Minari. Nice to meet you."

"Good, Minari-chan. Now, please take a seat so I can start classes.", Iruka said.

I skipped to an empty seat next to a boy with brown hair and tattoos on this face looking like fangs. Oh and a cute little puppy was sticking out its head from his shirt.

After I sat down the boy began grinning at me.

"Hey, I'm Kiba and that's my friend Akamaru.", he introduced himself and the little puppy.

"If you have any questions just ask me but if it's about school I can't help you, I don't get it myself."

I giggled and wanted to respond but a piece of chalk hit Kiba's head.

"It's nice that you two get along but please wait with talking until classes are over.", Iruka-sensei scolded us. Well actually just Kiba because I didn't say anything... yet.

The boy gave me a broad grin which I replied with a sweet smile.

–I moved to Konohagakure just a few days ago and got a little apartment that was provided by the Hokage. I originally lived in Sunagakure but had to move away because of... certain circumstances... Yeah that describes it quite well. However, the Hokage told me to attend the ninja academy cause there are most kids of my age and this way it would be easier for me to live alone. –

"Minari! You listening?"

Kiba poked me in the side and I snapped out of my thoughts just to look in the annoyed face of my sensei.

"Because it's your first day at school I let you get away this time. But I demand your full attention from now on!", Iruka-sensei scolded me.

"Yes Sir.", I said lazily not caring at all. This won't be the last time I'll zone out so why bother?

Snickering was coming from the other students and the sensei glared at them so they shut up.

(another invisible line)

Finally break...

"Come Minari-chan, I'll introduce you to the others!", Kiba told me and happily pulled me to a group of boys who were standing in the hallway and doing stuff.

"Hey guys, this is Minari-chan my new friend!"

"We know. We're in the same class, remember?", a annoyed looking guy with black hair looking like a pineapple said.

"I'm Shikamaru.", he than said to me.

"I'm Naruto! I'll become the next Hokage, believe it!", a blonde dude with whiskers like stripes on his cheeks yelled. My poor ears!

"I'm Choji.", a big guy said while shoving chips in his mouth.

"... Shino.", a guy with sunglasses and a high collar said referring to himself, I guess. Not easy to tell when one can't see his face.

"Hey, guys." I greeted them happily.

"Ne, ne, Minari-chan. Where did you live before?", Naruto asked.

"In Suna. If you want to know more details, take it that you won't receive any answers.", I answered pointing out that I don't like to think or talk about my past.

"Uhhh... Let's show you around!", Kiba decided to hide the fact that he didn't quite understand what I just meant.

The tour was rather short. They just showed me where the toilets and the different classrooms were. After that we went up a few staircases till we reached the roof.

It was nice out here. I clung to the fence that enclosed the roof area and awed at the view I had from here. The school building wasn't this big but from here you could overlook the whole training grounds of the academy.

I went back to the others who were sitting on the flour chatting/eating/sleeping/doing nothing, depending on the person.

Rest of the break time I talked to Shikamaru, Choji and Shino or laughed at Naruto and Kiba, who tried to balance on the fence but failed miserably which resulted with both of them almost falling from the roof. This fence isn't there just for fun, guys.

(invisible line...)

Back in class...

Iruka told us something about Chakra that seemed important and would appear in the next test, so I did what every average lazy student did: not listening and instead zoning out!

For my first day I got many friends. Not bad, I guess. But for some reason they are all male... Time to get female friends!

I starred at all the girls in class but my vision got stuck on a certain pink haired girl that was sitting in the row in front of me.

_Is that colour real? Why would any halfway reasonable ninja want an outstanding hair colour like that? And what is she looking at all along in the first place?_

Only now I realized that all the girls were looking in a certain direction, or more exactly to a certain someone.

In the last row on the window side sat a black-haired boy whose hair oddly resembled a duck butt. He was starring out of the window. Oh let me correct that, he was glaring out of it!

Why was he glaring like this? Was something out of the window that angered him so much to deserve a death glare like that?

I looked for this something but couldn't see anything except for a few clouds and leafs dancing in the wind. But they couldn't be this bad, right?

So I went back to stare at the boy. He turned around and glared me dead in the eye. I kept starring back because I didn't want to let him the triumph of me looking away. So we started a little stare-contest. He glowering at me and I simply starring at him.

After about 5 minutes non-stop starring he che-ed and started again to glare out of the window. Does that mean I won? Yay!

As I turned back I saw Kiba giving me a strange look.

"What?"

"What was that just now?"

"A starring-contest?", I asked/answered because I wasn't so sure about it myself.

"Why?"

"Dunno. Because it's fun?" I looked again at the black-haired boy and back to my friend.

"By the way. Who is he?"

"Uchiha Sasuke. Why? You fallen for him?"

"Why should I?"

"Because all the girls do?"

"Why?"

"I wished I knew that.", he sighed and looked back to the front.

I did the same because Iruka-sensei glared at us again.

I wondered why every girl had fallen for this Sasuke-guy. Sure he doesn't look bad but his hair looks like a duck butt and he's glaring all the time and he doesn't seem to be the talkative type... Well whatever. Nothing I would care about.

(look at my awesome invisible line!)

After school...

The school bell rang. I said goodbye to my friends and turned the way where my new apartment was.

Behind me advanced foot steps at high speed and as I looked around the last thing I could see was an orange speck before I got tackled to the ground.

"Minari-chan! It seems we live in the same direction!", a hyper Naruto announced happily.

"Looks like it. Can you get off of me now? It's hard to breathe with you on top of me.", I brought out gasping for air.

"Oh sorry." Quickly he stood up and gave me his hand to pull me up.

During the way home Naruto showed me a few places of Konoha, among them the supermarket, the Onsen, the stonefaces of the Hokages and Ichirakku's Ramen who sells – according to Naruto – the best Ramen of the world, believe it!

Then we found out the two of us don't just live in the same direction but even the same building. My apartment is straight under his.

He brought me to the door and asked me if we should go eat something together, but – as much as I love food for free – I turned him down.

Instead I took a long restorative shower to relieve the stress from today.

I rubbed my short light brown hair dry and gazed at my hazelnut-brown eyes in the mirror, still sparkling from today's events.

I never thought my first day of school would be this fun!

I put on a short yellow kimono and decided to go for a little walk.

It was already 7 pm and the sun was setting. On the streets were few to none people so I couldn't run into anyone. This way I could zone out without paying attention where I was going. Yay!

The cool evening air felt nice on my still hot skin from the shower. Lost in thoughts I watched the clouds tinted in red and gold from the sunset. An eagle flew over the roofs of the buildings. Cute birdy...

WAM!

"Ow, damn! Who put that lamp pole in my way?", I cursed and rubbed my hurting nose.

I heard a 'Che' and looked up to see Sasuke on the other side of the street derisively glaring at me than disappearing into a side street.

Why of all times does this happen when someone's around? And why is he even here? Won't his parents get angry at him if he stays out this long?

However, after that I went home. How can a day start this good and end up with something embarrassing like that?

I dressed into a pyjama and went to bed. Will tomorrow be as exciting as today? With this thought I drifted into a long nice sleep...

Well this was the first day of my new life here in Konoha...

(seriously: how do i do this hrozontal line?)

Well, this was the first chapter and I hope you enjoyed it... If you liked it or have something to complain about pls send me an review^^. I'll even reply when I get the hang out of it O_o

Review pls^^


	2. Sasuke Uchiha

Hey there! Here's the second chapter of Sins and Sunshine. Took me long enough to update… Please forgive me!

Oh and I forgot the disclaimer in the first chapter so I'll write it now…

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. All I own is Minari.

Oh and because I think disclaimers are boring and I'm too lazy to copy & paste it every time this is the only time I write it. I mean it's very unlikely that in the near future I own Naruto and if that really happens you're the first to know about it. ;)

Omigod! Just now I found out how do make these horizontal lines! Hurray! \(^_^)/

Now please enjoy chapter two!

* * *

**Sins ****and Sunshine**

Chapter 2: Sasuke Uchiha

It was a wonderful morning. The sun was shining brightly the birds were singing and I was about an hour early for school. I like being early. This way you get the best seat in class: the one at the very back right next to the window!  
Humming I opened the door to the classroom just to find Sasuke sitting on my favourite seat.

"Uh… morning.", I said trying to hide my disappointment, because I fell literally out of my bed this morning just to get this seat – and now that!

"Hn.", he answered not even looking at me but glaring out of the window – again.

I shrugged my shoulders than moved to the seat in front of him and sat down. He cocked an eyebrow.

"What? If you got the best seat in class than at least I want the second best." I explained to his silent question and turned my head to stare out of the window. The classroom was located directly over the main entrance of the academy so I could watch the other students coming and going. With more coming than going because it was still morning and the classes were soon to begin.

There was Shino. And there were Choji and Shikamaru walking up the path to the academy. Then they were run over by a horde of squealing girls that stormed the building.

Seconds later I could hear trampling from the hallway. Sasuke tensed and I gave him a questioning look. Then the door got smashed open and the girls from before flooded the room and surrounded Sasuke, still screaming and squealing. I really wonder why Sasuke's still not deaf from all the screaming. I would really have pitied him – I swear I would have – if it wasn't for the fact that while the fangirls gathered around the boy I got knocked over the table and landed hard on the floor.

I stood up rubbing my hurting butt and sent deathglares to the girls. There I saw Sasuke looking at me a small smile forming on his lips. Was he laughing at me? That means revenge!

Irritated I sat down next to Shikamaru who entered the class after the fangirls and sat with Choji in the middle row in the very back.

"Is every morning like this or just today?" I asked.

"Unfortunately every morning's this troublesome…" Shikamaru answered and fell asleep with his head resting on his folded arms. How can he sleep with all that noise?

I looked back at the girls who finally turned from screaming to normal talking. And again a certain pink haired girl stood out from the crowd. I believe Naruto told me her name was Sakura or something…

"Move it Ino-pig. I was here first so I get the seat next to Sasuke!" she shouted at a blond girl.

"Just because you were first doesn't mean you can sit next to Sasuke, forehead!" Blondie screamed back. But while these two were quarrelling another girl sat down on the hard-fought seat next to Sasuke. Fail.

I chuckled then saw Kiba coming in and waved at him to come over here.

"Morning Minari-chan. You didn't come with Naruto to school? I thought you lived in the same building." Kiba said.

"Nah, he's too slow and I like being early. But why do you know we're living in the same building?"

"Yesterday evening Naruto came over and told me."

"Does he do that often?" I asked unsure whether spontaneous visits in the evening were normal or not.

"Yeah but you get used to it." He answered shrugging his shoulders.

Moments later Naruto came in and snatched the seat in front of me.

"Minari-chan. Why didn't you wait for me?" He whined.

"Because you were still in bed when I went to school and I didn't feel like waiting for you to wake up."

The school bell rang and Iruka-sensei entered the classroom.

"And if I'd done so, I'd probably be late." I added with a grin.

Classes started and we all had to shut up. With my head resting in my palm I stared bored at the blackboard or better: through it. Nothing against the teacher but this theoretical stuff is plain boring. And I'm not the only one thinking so. Shikamaru was sleeping soundly, Kiba scratched Akamaru behind the ear not paying attention at all, Naruto tried to chat with the boy sitting next to him and got scolded by Iruka-sensei several times for it.

I looked out of the window again and noticed Sasuke looking at me with a bored expression on his face but as soon as I looked in his direction again a smile formed on his lips. I bet he's laughing at me again!

Rolling my eyes I turned my gaze back to the front. Just in time before Iruka-sensei could scold me.

…

"… And now we'll practice the 'Henge no Jutsu'. So please everyone come to the front and form a line." Sensei announced after a while. We did as he said and went to the front. The task was to transform into a person, which one didn't matter as long as the jutsu was correct.

The first students transformed into Iruka-sensei or the Hokage. I watched them with little interest. Honestly, if you can't even master this simple jutsu you should just give up trying to become a ninja.

When it was my turn I went to the front and stretched my arms. Then I looked at Sasuke and got a nice little idea. He noticed that I smirked at him and gave me a questioning look. My smirk grew even bigger.

I did a hand sign.

"Henge!"

The smoke cleared and there stood a second Sasuke: me. The real one cocked an eyebrow and I began to smirk again.

I then gave a seductive smile to the girls, who started to blush and to squeal. I went further and pulled a girl to me. I laid my hand on her back and the back of her head and bend over her. Then I gave her the best Sasuke-gaze I could. She blushed to the colour of a tomato and fainted in my arms.

"That's enough Minari. Well done but that little performance wasn't necessary." Iruka-sensei said.

Chuckling I strolled to the back of the row. The boys were laughing hysterically or snickering relating on the person, the girls glared daggers at me but a few couldn't suppress a giggle. When I saw to Sasuke he gave me an ultimate deathglare that I smugly replied with a grin. Payback is a bitch, pal!

Then it was Sasuke's turn and as he stood in the front he mischievously smirked at me. Oh-oh…

He made a hand sign and then there stood a second me. In a bunny costume! My jaw dropped open as he stood there posing and now all the boys started to blush. He attempted to walk closer to one guy but before he could do anything he had to block my roundhouse kick what I used to stop him.

"Don't you dare." I growled at him. He just sneered back and released the Henge.

"Okay that's enough you two! If you want to fight do it elsewhere." Iruka-sensei interrupted us and sent us back to the end of the line. The remaining exercise we had a glaring-contest and none of us wanted to lose. But when Naruto transformed into a naked girl and Sensei got thrown back from his nosebleed I couldn't hold back my laughter and almost rolled over the floor laughing together with the others. Sasuke che-ed again and stared to the side. I guess that's it then…

* * *

Break time…

After I got attacked by the deathglares of the girls in my class the whole time after that exercise I was really relieved when the bell rang for break time. And again I was sitting with my friends on the roof and relaxed in the sun.

"Say Minari-chan, why did you piss off the Uchiha?" Kiba asked what everyone wanted to know.

"Dunno. I thought dragging his pride through the mud would be a fitting revenge." Thinking about it I started grinning again.

"Revenge for what?" Choji questioned.

"For everything I think. Laughing at me, stealing my seat, me being squashed by his fangirls… Who wouldn't seek revenge for that?"

The others gave me strange looks but I shrugged it off. Then I fetched a bento out of my rucksack.

"Want some?" I offered my friends letting them have a bite of my food.

"Wow that tastes great! Did you make it yourself?" Kiba asked surprised.

"Sure. If you live alone for a long time you inevitably learn how to cook." I explained proudly that they like my food.

"Ne Minari-chan? Can you cook for me sometime please?" Naruto begged with puppy dog eyes.

"Uhhh… maybe." I answered grinning.

* * *

After classes (Because nothing happened except furious girls glaring at Minari)…

Today I wasn't going home with Naruto which made him sad… Instead I took a walk around the training ground of the academy. It was even bigger than I expected it to be. There was a huge part covered with a forest (logical if you live in the village hidden in the leaf), places to train your fighting and throwing skills and a big pond – or small lake, how you take it.

The purling of the water made me feel at ease and my mind drifted off to nowhere. Farther away at the pond was a pier and someone was sitting on it. But I didn't really notice because I was in lala-land right now…

"Kyaah!"

SPLASH!

Letting out a scream of surprise I tripped over a pebble – A fucking little pebble! – and fell head first into the pond. I emerged and coughed the water out of my lungs. Then I forced Chakra in my feet and climbed on the water surface.

"Stupid pebble letting me trip, stupid water being this cold and watery." I muttered and glared at the little rock innocently lying on the road. Then I remembered there was someone sitting on the pier who probably saw my little accident just now. Nervously I turned my head and instantly wanted to let out a loud scream of frustration. On the pier sat none other than Sasuke Uchiha! He gave me a scoffing look than stared in the distance.

I wringed my kimono out then went to the pier and sat down next to the black haired boy. He gave me a short gaze then returned looking away.

"Hey." I whispered. He showed no reaction but I could tell he was listening.

"If you tell anyone about this, I'm afraid I have to kill you."

He stared at me with a cocked eyebrow and I was grinning back at him to show he doesn't have to take it literally.

"Hn." He said again staring ahead but a small smile on his lips. I'll take this as a 'okay'.

We sat there for a while no one feeling the urge to start a conversation. But then a question kept bothering me.

"Say. Won't your parents get angry if you stay out so long?"

He flinched and I wanted to apologize right away realizing I shouldn't have asked that. But then he decides to answer me albeit hesitantly.

"My parents… are dead. They got killed long time ago." His face was like stone and hatred reflected in his eyes. I felt sorry for him. I knew this feeling just too well.

"You know. My parents, too, they got killed when I was only 5." I told him. A deep sadness spread in me as I thought at my parents. But I didn't want to cry. I stopped crying a long time ago. The boy next to me looked shocked at first but then turned serious.

"Did you take revenge on the murderer?" He asked. A bittersweet smile was on my lips, the tears burning in my eyes but I blinked them away.

"Unfortunately it's not that easy, because I was the one who killed them." I whispered then quickly got up and turned away.

"I think I should go home. If I keep running around with wet clothes, I'll catch a cold." I smiled at him than run away. He kept staring at me but didn't say anything. When he couldn't see me anymore the tears came flowing down my face and sobs escaped my throat.

At home I threw myself into the bed and sniffled. After crying all the way home I felt a little better. I lay there for a while and thought about the things I talked about with Sasuke. So he also was an orphan. Then no wonder he can stay out this long… But does he even eat enough? He didn't seem the type of guy who pays much attention to his health.

A small smile crossed my cheeks. Maybe I should make him a bento for tomorrow…

* * *

We try out best, make it worse, finish last, started first, fail to swim, learn to drown, growing up, falling down, wait and see, hurry up, take good care, give a fuck~~

Someone knows "Learn to drown" be Itchy Poopzkid? I really love it (thought it's not my favourite song of this band) and sang it while writing this. Sadly I'm not good at singing. Guess my brother's deaf by now…

Well whatever. I'm afraid Sasuke got a bit OOC this chapter… But I really wanted to write it like this so who cares? (Sasuke-Fans: We!) Okay…~ I apologize by all Sasuke-Fans *bows down apologeticly*

Oh and please review! I love reviews they motivate me to update! Sadly I didn't get any review for the last chap… Anyway please review ^-^

P.S. In the anime I saw that the door to the classroom is actually a sliding door but I guess one can still smash it open…


	3. Fangirl problems

Hello again! Wow I actually uploaded chapter 3 :D

I was looking for a certain piece of paper just now. It wasn't easy to find it in this mess called my desk. Maybe I should clean it up from time to time… Naah, too much work.

Oh and a huge thanks to Valinor's Twilight for her review! Here's an imaginary cookie for you!^^ *give imaginary cookie*  
I'll give imaginary cookies to everyone who reviews so please do so^^

However… Here's chapter 3, enjoy!

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**Sins and Sunshine**

Chapter 3: Fangirl problems

Today again I was early in the academy. And again I found Sasuke sitting on my beloved window seat! Is it purpose that he's always stealing my seat? If it is, I'll find a way to sit there, I swear!  
Like yesterday I moved to the seat in front him.

"Morning." I greeted him while going past him.

"Hn."

Resting my head in my palm I stared out of the window. It felt like a pair of black eyes was watching me… Naah, probably just my imagination!

There was a pleasant silence in the room. The first students came in but it remained quiet, yet.

Then there it was. The horde of girls stormed up the way to the academy. In 30 seconds they'd reach the classroom. I swirled around to face Sasuke.

"They're coming! What do we do?" I asked panicking.

"Hn?"

"They was almost crushed by them and had to give up my seat. Yes, is does concern me!"

He looked a bit surprised that I probably interpreted his 'hn' right but got himself together and pondered.

"Wait, I have a plan!" I announced grinning and then whispered my lightly crazy plan into his ear.

**

* * *

**

Normal POV…

Again the door crashed open as screaming girls rushed into the room. But the Screams calmed down as soon as the girls beheld the two Sasukes sitting on the window side. One in the last row, the other in front of him.

"What's that?"

"What's going on here?"

"A Justu?" The girls mused confused.

The other students that were already here had to refrain from laughing. They knew what was going on but didn't want to kill all joy.

"I know! Sasuke always sits in the last row so this is the real one!" a girl called out and pointed to the Sasuke in the back. He however smiled and shook his head lightly.

"Well, wrong." He said then made a handsign so there sat Minari instead.

"Sorry, guys!" she said with a huge grin.

The fangirls glared at her then turned to the supposedly true Sasuke. But he lifted his hand in a stopping manner and also began to smile.

"Nuh-uh." He said then mimicked the first Sasuke resulting with two Minaris sitting there.

The girls sulked and went to sit down somewhere in the class but they still kept an eye on the two Minari/Sasukes.

The Minari in the back looked around than smiled at the one in front of her and nodded. She then released the Jutsu and now there sat the real Sasuke.

**

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Minari's POV…

Smugly I leaned back and happily ignored all the deathglares I got from the fangirls. They then began again to gather around Sasuke.

"Sasuke-kun that was mean. Why did you do this?" they asked him sadly. He ignored them – like always. Instead I answered their question.

"Maybe because every fucking day you come storming in screaming your beloved Sasuke-kun almost deaf and making him claustrophobic with your pushing and shoving?"

"Who asked for your opinion?" a girl snapped back.

"Well, she has a point there." Shikamaru said while walking into the classroom and sitting down next to me, Choji right behind him.

"Morning Shikamaru-kun, morning Choji-kun." I greeted them happily.

"That's strange. I thought Sasuke always sits here." Choji mused then shut up because of all the deathglares I got again.

Then the others came and asked the same and shut up because of the same reason. That was okay with me because this way I didn't have to explain everything over and over again.

The classes began as Iruka-sensei came in but it didn't keep the fangirls from glaring at me.

**

* * *

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Break time...

Iruka-sensei kept me in the classroom a bit longer to scold me that I should pay more attention while classes. Not that it'd help though...

After that I met up with my friends who waited in the hallway for me, but I told them that I still had to do something. Than I ran out of the main entrance and to the back of the academy. While (not) listening to Iruka-sensei's wise words I saw Sasuke going there while I stared out of the window – like always. Why I was looking for him? Because I promised him a bento of course – even though he doesn't known anything about that.

I found him behind the academy leaning against the wall and starring into the distance. When I approached him he didn't show any reaction but I knew he noticed me. What kind of ninja would he be if he didn't?

I held the bento out to him and he eyed it sceptically.

"Just regard it as a thank-you-gift that you didn't tell anyone about my... you know... accidents." I told him feeling a bit awkward.

Instead of giving him food I just could start to watch where I'm going... Naah too much work.

Still a bit sceptical he accepted it and muttered something sounding like a thanks. I sweetly smiled at him than turned around and left.

In front of the entrance I got headed off by a group of girls, I knew three of them from my class.

"You're Minari, right? You have to come with us. We need to talk." One girl said with a serious face and indicated me to follow them. I thought about what they may wanted from me. Maybe slamming me into a wall and threatening me not to come near their prince ever again, whoever it is? Naah, something like this just happens in mangas, So it's not likely gonna be to happen!

On the other side of the academy I got slammed into a wall by one of the girls and she punched with her fist against the wall to cut off my escape route. So much to 'just happening in mangas'...

"So... What's up?" I asked pretending as if nothing happened.

"What's up? You ask what's UP? You're hitting on our Sasuke-kun, insulting our Sasuke-fanclub members and just now you've been seen while giving Sasuke a bento! From now on you won't get involved with Sasuke in any way, otherwise you'll be sorry you've ever set foot into this academy, got it?" she screamed at me – my poor ears!

Demonstratively she punched the wall right next to my face. I looked to the spot she stroke. There was a crack in the wall.

"I don't know what the wall did to you but was is that bad that you have to crush it?" I mentioned totally ignoring her threat.

That was the final straw. The poor little fangirly lost it and clutched the collar of my kimono, ready hit beat the hell out of me. The other girly also looked like they'd go for my jugular.

"Kyaaah!" Suddenly everyone started screaming, jumping from one foot to the other and shaking their clothes. Then I understood why. Little bugs fell out of their t-shirts and buzzed around them.

"I know these bugs. They are poisonous. If they bite you, you get ugly red pustules." I made up and watched the now hysterically flailing around.

"... But I heard they go away if you dive into water. It's a good thing there's a lake near here..." Before I could finish speaking they run off in direction of the pond on the training grounds and I could imagine very well what they were going to do and burst out in laughter.

While I was falling about with laughter, Shino jumped down the wall behind me and stood right beside me.

"You all right?" he asked.

"Yeah and thanks for saving me. But was that you with these bugs? How did you do that?" I finally was able to ask after I recovered from my fit of laughter.

"Our clan uses them as weapons. They nest within our bodies therefore we can control them as we please." he explained.

"And they are not poisonous."

"Cool. And yeah I know, but I really wanted to see whether they really would jump into the pond if I said that." I said grinning and suppressed another fit of laughter.

When we went up to the roof where the others where waiting Kiba came running towards me.

"You okay, Minari-chan? We saw these girls surrounding you and..."

"Don't worry. Shino-kun surely helped me there." I soothed him.

"You really should have known that something like this would happen." Shikamaru said.

"Well, I thought something like this would only happen in mangas." I admitted smiling bashfully.

They told me how reckless my actions were and that I should take care of me a bit more. All the while I had a huge smile on my face. It was sweet how much they cared for me and it showed me what good friends I had.

**

* * *

**

After break...

When the bell rang we went back to the classroom. Then there came in the girls who ambushed me back there. Soaking wet!

The whole class was bursting into laughter. With faces as red as a tomato the girls went to their seats and gave me deathglares once again. But precious little did I care because I was busy dying of laughter.

When Iruka-sensei came in and saw the soaked students, he cocked an eyebrow.

"Why the hell are you that soaked? … Wait. I don't want to know."

**

* * *

**

After classes...

"You all can go home now. But don't forget to do your homework." Iruka-sensei said and some students ran out of the room yelling "Finally free~!". Others took their time to check if they didn't forget anything – like me. Not like the ones that were running out and leaving their homework behind lying on their desks.

_That means detention~ _I hummed in my head. Punishments mean discussions and discussions mean stalling boring classes.

I was abaout to stand up and walk over to Naruto who waited in the hallway for me, when Sasuke placed something on my desk when passing by. I looked up and saw it was the bento box I gave him. I opened it and was quite suprised to see that he ate everything up. But there was a small note in it. Reading it a smile crossed my face.

_Thanks for the meal. Didn't think you're such a good cooker._

"Hey, Minari-chan, you coming?" Naruto shouted. I stuffed the box in my bag an hurried to him.

* * *

Who would have thought Sasuke likes writing little notes... Well, it's my story so of course I knew.

Hope you enjoyed the chapter! I'll try to update every two weeks. Let's see how long I can keep this up...

Maybe I should give a little preview for the next chapter... Well, why not^^

Preview:_ "Who the heck is Hinata?"_

Not much but better than nothing, ne?

.


	4. First female friend

Shit I'm late one day. I wanted to update yesterday, I swear, but my computer was all "nuh-uh, you're not allowed to do that!" so I had to wait until today… Well some shabby excuse I have here but unfortunately it's the truth :S

I don't like winter… It's cold and I'm sick -.- Good thing: one week left then I finally have holiday, yay! ^-^

* * *

**Sins and Sunshine**

Chapter 4: First female friend

I came early into the academy – like always. Sasuke was sitting in the last row window side – like always. I took the seat in front of him – like always.

I turned to face him.

"Hey, Sasuke-kun. Wanna switch seats for a bento?" I asked nicely. He thought about it than nodded. He switched places and I gave him the box. Good thing I made two this morning.

I leaned back and looked out of the window. The fangirls did yet have to show up. Looking around the classroom I remembered why I loved this seat so much: You have the best view from here! Slowly the others came and it didn't take long until the fangirls stormed in. But unlike the last few times they didn't pounce on Sasuke. Instead they suspiciously eyed me. Maybe they were pondering if I was me or Sasuke... So they decided to just ask the boy himself.

"Sasuke-kun?" a girl asked hesitantly. He merely glanced at her than continued starring out of the window. That was evidence enough for the girls and they started gathering around him again and told him oh how wonderful he is. (Seriously: As if he would care)

Afterwards Shikamaru, Choji and Kiba came and sat down right next to me . As always Naruto came too late and he had to sit on the only empty seat: The one next to Sasuke. (Why of all seats is THAT the free one?) Sasuke didn't like that very much though.

"Scram, dope." He said glaring at the blond. Naruto looked a bit startled but got a grip on himself again.

"Why should I listen to you, you... you teme!" he snapped back. This resulted in the two boys starting a glaring-contest that continued until Iruka-sensei came into class and there wasn't any time left for Naruto to switch seats.

"Good morning class. Today we'll have some outdoor training." the sensei announced. Everyone cheered and ran out of class. Within seconds Iruka-sensei remained alone in the room and didn't even have a chance to explain what we had to do. Well Sensei your fault for not telling us that first.

* * *

We were standing on some sort of training grounds.

"I will now divide you into groups of three and you will fight against each other to get a little feeling for battle." Iruka-sensei explained and started to call out some names.

"The next group is Minari..." I pricked my ears.

"...Kiba..." We high fived.

"...and Hinata." I gave Kiba a questioning look.

"Who the heck is Hinata?"

"U-uhm, I'm H-Hinata." someone was stuttering from behind me. Turning around I saw a girl with short blueish black hair standing there shyly looking to the ground.

"Hi, Hinata-chan. I'm Minari." I greeted her nicely.

"H-Hello."

"Minari-chan. How come you don't know Hinata?" Kiba asked. I shrugged.

"Dunno. Never noticed her, I guess."

Kiba decided to fight without Akamaru so the little dog went sleeping under a nearby tree. Then we all went in fighting stance. I came at Kiba and swung my leg at him which he caught with his right hand. I supported myself with my hands on the ground and swung my second leg at which so he had to dodge so I could free myself. Then I jumped in the air because Hinata tried to attack me from behind. She and Kiba exchanged a few hits until I tried with a kick to knock her from her feet. Kiba lunged out at me and I drew back to start a counter but again came at me so I jumped and used his back as a steppingstone. He fell to the ground and I faced Hinata. We started some hand-to-hand combat and damn she was good! Kiba got up and lunged at us. I caught Hinatas arm after dodging her blow and threw her at the boy. They fell to the ground and I sat down at the ground panting heavily.

"Let's have… a break." I got out and lied back on the ground.

"Good idea." Kiba agreed grinning and sat down beside me. Hinata looked helplessly around. I waved her to us so she would sit down with us.

"Man, you two are good." I said while inspecting the bruises that appeared on my limbs.

"I have to return the compliment." Kiba answered scratching the back of his head.

"Uhm, Hinata-chan, can I ask you a question? Why is it that your eyes are this white?" I asked the girl and pondered whether it was okay to ask or not.

"Well t-that's the K-Kekkei Genkai of our clan. The B-Byakugan." She explained shyly looking to the side and playing with her fingers.

"The Byakugan, huh?" I mused.

"What? You don't know the Byakugan, Minari-chan? That's an extremely powerful Dojutsu and only the members of the Hyuga-clan have it." Kiba said startled of my unawareness.

"Well, sorry, but I'm only here of a few days and didn't have time to study the whole history of this village!" I snapped back. I mean seriously, how was I supposed to know that? She could just as well have worn contact lenses for all I know!

"Hey you guys. Who said you could have a break? You are supposed to fight not to laze around." Iruka-sensei scolded us after magically appearing behind me. Okay maybe I just ignored him until he said something.

"We did. Then we got exhausted and sat down." I explained.

"Exhausted, huh? How about you three run five laps around the academy to improve your stamina?"

"What?" Kiba yelped.

"That's not fair! Just because you wanted to take a break we all get punished!" he blamed me.

"Because of me? Why did you listen to me then, smartass?"

"Everyone would be worn out if he gets someone thrown at by some crazy bitch!"

"Well sorry for fighting seriously instead of playing around. How could I've known you're such a sissy?"

"I just didn't want to beat up girls, that's all!"

"Yanno this excuse let's you sound like a sissy even more." I taunted him a grin appearing on my face.

"Oh yeah? I take you down in less then two minutes."

"Show me what you've got!"

Kiba shouted out to Akamaru who instantly appeared by his side. He made some hand signs and Akamaru transformed into a second Kiba. So animals can also use 'Henge'? My grin grew wider as I got into fighting stance.

"S-Sensei. Shouldn't we stop them?" Hinata asked uneasily. The teacher just stood there a smile on his face.

"It's okay. That's what they should do after all."

Some onlookers gathered around us but I didn't care. I simply watched Kiba as he planed his attack on me.

The two Kibas lunged at me from both sides. I grapped the arm of the first one and tossed him on the other one who jumped and attacked me with his claws (claws?). I crouched down and kicked him into the stomach which he blocked with his arm but still flew a few meters. The other Kiba started an attack again. I jumped to my feet to evade his claws but my sleeve got shred and three red scratches formed on my arm. I decided it would be better for my health to avoid his claws.

We got soma distance between us to plan our next moves. I lunged at Kiba-1, Kiba-2 aimed at my side. I got on my knees and swung my leg to knock him from his feet than jumped in the air to dodge Kiba-1 who came at me with his claws. Then I hold on to his shoulders and swung my legs in a circle to hit Kiba-2 into the guts, who tried an air attack. He flew through the air and when he hit the ground he transformed back to Akamaru.

"Akamaru!" Kiba shouted then grabbed my arm and slung me away. I landed more or less on my feet then pushed my off from the ground to lunge at Kiba and kicked to his face. He blocked it with his arm but still fell to the ground.

We were both standing there gasping for air.

"Okay… You're better than I thought." Kiba admitted.

"And I take back what I said. You're not as sissy as you look." I joked grinning which Kiba also replied with a grin and rolling his eyes.

"Well done you two. That's how it should be." Sensei praised us.

"Wow, Minari-chan. You're really good at fighting!" Naruto shouted while tackling me with a hug to the ground.

"You all should follow their example" Iruka-sensei said directed at the crowd of students "and get back to training." The students grumbled but got back to their training.

"As for you three…" he turned to us again "You can go take a break now."

Kiba and I high fived then we took Hinata with us and went back to the academy.

"Hell, yeah! We have break!" Kiba shouted while we walked past the others to piss them off and we received a few deathglares in return.

* * *

We still had 10 minutes till the others came for lunch break so it were just Hinata, Kiba and me on the roof.

Kiba slept soundly on the ground while Hinata and I sat on the ground leaning against the wall. Hinata had a blush in her face and looked like she wanted to say something.

"M-Minari-san?"

"You can leave out the -san, Hinata-chan." I told her smiling.

"O-Okay. M-Minari-chan, can I ask you something?"

"Sure."

"W-What's your r-relationship with Naruto?" Surprised I looked at her. She was now blushing to the colour of a tomato and starring holes into the floor.

"W-Well. H-he hugged you."

"Oh, you like him?" I realized (Yeah, I'm a really smart person, I know.). The girls now started steaming.

"Don't worry. We're just good friends. Just like Kiba. Right, Kiba?" I yelled to wake up the snoring boy.

"Huh? What the?"

"Look. The others are coming."

"Hey guys!" I waved at Naruto, Shikamaru, Choji and Shino as they entered the roof.

"Minari-chan. That was really unfair. We had train until the bell rang." Naruto whined.

"Life's a bitch!" Kiba taunted him grinning.

"Troublesome…" Shikamaru muttered then lied down on the floor and fell asleep.

"Uh, wait. Why is Hinata-chan up here as well today?" Naruto asked only now noticing her.

"You only noticed her now? What kind of ninja are you?" I asked back.

"And that from you. Up until today you didn't even know she existed." Kiba said and received a kick in the face.

"U-Uhm, I…" Hinata attempted to say but got interrupted by me.

"Hinata-chan's my friend, so she'll hang out with us once in a while from now on." I announced happily and winked at her. She understood. If she's with us she can be with Naruto.

"Congrats! Your first female friend." Choji realized.

"Hey, that's right. Minari-chan, how come you didn't have any girl friends up until now?" Kiba asked.

"Look at the deathglares I get from the girls in my class, then you know why."

* * *

My first time writing fighting scenes. Hope you enjoyed it.

Got no reviews for the last chapters which made me sad… I had to eat all the imaginary cookies by myself! So please review then we can eat all the cookies together, they even have chocolate sprinkles!

Review for next chapter: _Exams?_

"_Shikamaru-kun, I bet you have a perfect score as fast as you finished the test!" I said happily._

"_Naah. The test was just too troublesome so I fell asleep after the first half."_


	5. Exams!

Happy New Year! I hope you had a nice start into this year. Unfortunately I hadn't because my computer really hates me and I'm going nuts! But at least writing still works…  
Now here's chapter 5, enjoy!

* * *

**Sins and Sunshine**

Chapter 5: Exams!

3 months passed since I moved to Konoha. I found many friends, just as many fiends – *cough* fangirls *cough* – and by now I really fell in love with this village.

All in all I really enjoy my life here if there wouldn't be this little problem: final examinations!

"Argh! I don't get it!" Kiba whined and Akamaru yelped in confirmation, not that he had to learn he just wanted to go play. Because of the exams tomorrow our clique – consisting of Kiba, Naruto, Choji, Shikamaru, Hinata and little me – decided to learn together at Shikamaru's place. Actually it's just Shikamaru-kun giving us private tutoring. We also asked Shino to join us but he refused saying he's better off alone. Now I perfectly understand what he meant. The exams are tomorrow and we didn't even cover half of the stuff we needed to know, all thanks to the two retards who don't even get the simplest thing. Right now they were stewing some exercises while poor Shikamaru had to explain them the same passage for the nth time. Hinata and I finished these exercises already and were hitting the books. Choji went to buy some snacks about two hours ago…

"Why isn't Choji back yet?" I asked pondering where he went. The store must be far away…

"I bet he ran off with the snacks to it them all by himself." Kiba stated grinning.

"He probably went to Shino to ask him for private tutoring because you hold us up the whole time." Shikamaru retorted annoyed.

"I-I'll ask Mrs Nara if I can make a few snacks in the k-kitchen." Hinata suggested shyly.

"Good idea. I'll help you." I said happily, relieved to get away from the books.

Unlike Shikamaru's concerns his mother always was really nice to us, she even helped us making the snacks.

"D-Do you think N-Naruto and Kiba will pass?" Hinata asked while we were carrying two trays with onigiri and sandwiches to Shikamaru's room.

"I heard you only need to score 10 of 100 credits to pass. Then again, now I'm also worried if they'll pass." I answered grinning.

We entered the room but stopped dead in our tracks. I blinked once, twice, realizing that my mind didn't play a trick on me. In front of us were Naruto and Kiba lying on the floor, tangled together. Naruto, who was on top of Kiba looked up at us, shocked, and froze in his movement. Kiba followed his gaze then froze as well. Hinata's face turned bright red and my eyebrow started twitching.

"Excuse us." I said calmly and closed the door again, the two boys shouting a desperate "Wait!" while a food stopped the door from closing.

"It's not as you think." A calm but irritated voice stated from beside us. There was Shikamaru leaned against the wall next to us. He seemed to be there quite some time but I noticed him only now. Blame the two idiots cuddling on the floor.

"A while ago they started a fight over who would fail the exams." He explained with the two nodding frantically and us girls blinking in understanding.

"Both of them if they act like this instead of learning." I stated then put down the tray on the table after shoving away the books on it, Hinata quickly following suit. I took a sandwich a nibbled on it while watching Kiba and Naruto hungrily lunging at the food. Hinata heaved a sight of relief that her beloved isn't gay afterall and Shikamaru is simply relieved that the troublesome bickering finally stopped.

* * *

The next day (or how I'd like to say: Doomsday!)…

"Noooooo! I'm laaaaaaaaaaate!" I screamed while storming up to the academy. Today of all days I had to oversleep. You know this mysterious sickness when always something important is about to happen and you can't afford under all circumstances to be late, then you oversleep or the train is late or something like that? As a matter of fact I suffer from this strange disease. Yesterday I set about 5 alarm-clocks so this wouldn't happen, but three of them broke in an unexplainable manner, the forth one was set on pm instead of am and lastly I forgot to close the window and a fat bumblebee came buzzing in and sat down on the on/off-button for the alarm of the fifth one. Unbelievable? I know what you mean, but that wasn't all. This morning the way to school was filled with unusually many obstacles preventing me from arriving in time. For example all the pebbles on the road that made me trip or the stray dogs that randomly decided to chase me through the village just because I wanted to eat my breakfast (bacon and a sandwich) on the way to save time. Yep, I was truly unlucky today.

Panting I smashed open the door to the classroom and sat down on the only free seat that's left, the one next to Sasuke (Seriously: Why's always the seat next to the probably world's biggest heartthrob the empty one?). He cocked an eyebrow to the sight of this wasted form of mine.

"One word…" I threatened him irritably.

Then Iruka-sensei came in.

"Good morning class. Without further ado we'll start this written exam and while I'm handing out the test papers I'll explain a few things." He said and a moan passed through the seating rows.

"1. As from now talking is strictly prohibited.

2. This test will make up 1/3 of your total grade. 1/3 will be the practical test and 1/3 your progress in this school year."

Another moan echoed through the class.

"You need 10 of 100 credits to pass.

3. Cheating is, of course, not allowed. If you get caught three times you automatically fail.

The moment I tell you to turn over the test sheet you have exactly 210 minutes to work on it, after this time I'll collect them once more and you're allowed to go home. If everything's clear let's begin." He said after handing out the last sheet of paper and everyone turned it over and started reading the first questions.

Here's a summary just about how this exam went off:

The first half an hour passed relatively smooth. Then you could hear the first moans and swears. Naruto clumsily tried to copy from his seat neighbour but got caught instantly. So much to the oh-so-great ninja who wants to become hokage. Kiba started ranting about how difficult this test was, but sensei just replied that he just had to learn a bit more. I agreed with that, but keeping in mind that even Shikamaru couldn't cure his stupidity, then all mights residing on earth wouldn't be able to put some sort of intelligence in this screwed up brain of his.

Speaking of Shikamaru. He seemed to have finished the test within an hour and was now sleeping soundly on his desk. Shino's tutoring appeared to be really helpful, because neither he nor Choji seemed to have any troubles. Hinata, too, coped with it quite well and was sunk into the questions while the boy next to her desperately tried to copy from her but got caught by sensei. Fail.

Sasuke had already finished all the questions and was now starring out the window with a bored expression on his face. Next time I'll definitely ask Sasuke to tutor me. For my part, I'm doing so-so. Right now I was stewing over some math problem but couldn't bring myself to get a solution. Frustrated I hit my head on the table and sighted disheartened. A rustling voice let me look to the side. Sasuke arranged his test paper so that I could read the answers without any problems. Iruka-sensei was busy scolding Naruto for being caught cheating the second time and was standing with the back to me so I could copy from Sasuke without any troubles. I gave him a grateful look which he replied with a "Hn". I'll interpret that as a "No problem"…

* * *

After hell-I mean school *blinking innocently*…

As a reward for successfully surviving the final exams our clique went to a ice cream parlour to celebrate.

"Yeah! The horror is over!" Naruto and Kiba cheered in unision.

"I didn't find it this tough." Choji remarked and Shino nodded in agreement.

"Shikamaru-kun, I bet you have a perfect score as fast as you finished the test." I said happily.

"Naah. The test was just too troublesome so I fell asleep after the first half." He replied and I sweatdropped.

"N-Now we have t-to pass the practical test." My timid friend mentioned insecurely.

"Don't worry. I heard it's pretty easy." I consoled her.

"That's right! And with Akamaru her by my side I can't loose!" Kiba shouted, Akamaru once again barking in agreement.

"Speaking of Akamaru, why didn't you let him collecting the answers from the others. He surely wouldn't have been caught."

"Why didn't I think of this?" shocked Kiba shouted. Just now he realized that these two hard weeks of studying would have been completely unnecessary.

Looking on the other side of the street I saw Sasuke passing by. Would he want to spend some time with us celebrating? I wondered and then decided it doesn't hurt to ask.

"Hey, Sasuke-kun!" I called out and waved to the blackhaired boy who looked in my direction then strolled over to us.

"What do you want?" By the looks of my friends they wanted to know the same. I just kept smiling.

"I thought maybe you wanted you hang out with us." Kiba and Naruto starred at me with shock written all over their face, the others didn't seem to mind. Sasuke pondered a moment then nervously glanced to the side.

"No time." He simply said before quickly continuing his walk.

"What was that all about?" Shikamaru asked irritated.

He barely finished his sentence as a horde of squealing girls stormed along the street.

"Sasukeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!"

We sweatdropped as we watched the brutalized fangirls chasing the Uchiha-offspring.

"Somehow I feel sorry for him…" I mumbled then ordered another serving ice cream.

* * *

Yay, another chapter done! Hope you enjoyed it.

I really liked the part where Sasuke let Minari copy from his test. It made him look like he actually had a heart… To be honest I don't like Sasuke and I'm still wondering why I write a story about him… Well it's not like he'll get Minari, it's a Sasuke-Gaara-Story afterall! Mwahaha take that Uchiha! Mwahahaha *cough* uh yeah.

For all Gaara-fans out there: it's still some time till his appearance so please be patient, it's just… hmmh wait *looking through the chapters* Omg, so long? I, also Gaara-fan, would really like to beat me up right now for making the sweet hot redhead wait for so long… Err, I'm going to hide somewhere now.

While rereading the first chapter of Naruto I noticed something interesting: It says that Naruto already failed the graduation exam twice but he's the same age as all the others. He isn't some prodigy to try it earlier than the others but the only one who failed and still the same age. No matter how long I think about it I just can't make sense out of it!

Preview:

"_Minari-chan, I did it! I passed!"_

"_Uh-huh."_

"_And you know how? First there was Mizuki-sensei who-"_

_WAMM_

"_Ouch, my nose!"_

.

.

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	6. Exams! 2

Hey there again! Thanks a lot to Azura Soul Reaver (Sorry, forgot to reply!), Riss737 and Jestie Uchiha for your lovely reviews, you made me so happy!

Now enjoy chapter 6!

* * *

**Sins and Sunshine  
**

Chapter 6: Exams? (2)

Next day, practical part of the finals. The weather was nice, my physical condition was in good shape, perfect for whatever we might have to do. Now nothing can go wrong? If only. Unfortunately I totally forgot to reset my alarm clocks when I went to bed. And that means…

Running through the hallway hoping I would still make it in time. Too fast to spot I ran past the classroom then quickly turned around and pushed the door open. Out of breath I scanned the class and noticed that the teacher was still not there.

"I made it." I said under my breath.

"Yes, you did, Minari. Now could you please move to the side so I can enter?"

I quickly turned around and saw Iruka-sensei standing behind me, smiling like usual. I skipped to the free seat next to Sasuke, ignoring the snickering of the girls. Hey, I was in time so I couldn't care less about a few fangirls without a life.

"The test will take place in this room." Iruka-sensei explained and pointed to a door behind him. Strange, why did I never notice this door before…

"The final test will be on the Clone Jutsu." After that Naruto cursed, seems like he'll have a hard time with that…

Then the sensei called the first student and proceeded with him into the room.

* * *

"Ha, Full House!" Kiba called out triumphantly.

"Damn!" Naruto cursed and chucked his cards on the desk.

"Yeah, won!" Kiba proclaimed and reached out to grab the snack-jackpot.

"Nuh-uh, not so fast." I said grinning and revealed my Straight Flush.

To kill the time Naruto, Kiba, Choji and I decided to play poker (With snacks instead of money of course. We're still kids!). The outcome was, that Choji and I won most of the time, Kiba here and then and Naruto lost every single round. Poor boy, no luck today!

"Stupid game." Naruto pouted and Kiba taunted him. Meanwhile I stowed my booty in my bag and Choji ate his.

Then the door to the testing room opened and Shino came out.

"How was it? Did you pass?" we asked him and for an answer he held out a headband with the konoha-sign on it. We congratulated him, then Iruka-sensei stick his head out of the side room.

"Takanaki Minari." Seemed like it was my turn now. My friends wished me luck as I proceeded to the test.

"So, Minari-chan" Mizuki, the second examiner said "Please make a few clones."

"How many?"

"As many as you like."

"Okay." Forging my chakra I did the hand seals for the clone-technic and ta-da~ there stood 6 perfect copies of me.

"Well done." Iruka-sensei said smiling.

"Your written test turned out well and your collaboration in classes is promising."

"Does that mean I passed?"

"Yes it does and we look forward to your progress."

"Yay!" I cheered and hugged both examiners before taking a headband and storming out of the room to tell my friends.

"Congratulations, Minari-chan!" Naruto yelled happily tackling me to the ground. Now the blond was the only one left from our clique who still had to pass.

"No problem." he proclaimed grinning "If you all pass, how could I possibly fail?"

"Are you sure? It's the 'Bunshin-no-jutsu' after all." Kiba pointed out.

"Even if it's the 'ruling the world-no-jutsu' I'll still pass this, believe it!" the blond answered clenching his fist and flames burning in his eyes.

"Kyaaaaah, Sasuke-kun! You're the best!" the fangirls yelled as Sasuke walked in, a headband in his hand. Within seconds he was surrounded by shrieking girls that were holding up signs with lines like "We *heart* Sasuke" on it.

"Seems like the Uchiha passed as well." Kiba remarked glaring at the blackhaired boy and his harem.

"Of course he did. What did you expect from the top student?" Shikamaru replied annoyed from the noise.

Sasuke desperately tried to get rid of the love-crazed girls, who looked like they would eat him alive at any moment. Someone should help him, I thought. After all, who wants to get ripped to pieces by his fans?

Then a little crazy idea came to my mind. I slipped out of the room hoping the fangirls were dumb enough to fall for this and Sasuke being bright enough to see through it. Crossing my fingers I did the seals for the henge-no-jutsu and transformed into Iruka-sensei. Taking a deep breath I opened the door to the classroom again.

"Sasuke-kun, would you come with me for a moment, please?" I shot a glance at the girls. "Alone."

I went out of class again and hoped that Sasuke understood. And really he followed me to the hallway and closed the door behind him. He had a relieved expression on his face – as far as possible for an Uchiha, of course.

"What is it, Minari?" he pronounced my name in a slightly amused tone. I released the transformation and looked at him with a huge grin on my face.

"I knew you'd look through this."

"Wasn't that hard." He replied with a small smile (Omigod! He smiled! THE Uchiha Sasuke actually smiled!)

"So what's up?"

"Not much. Just wanted to save you before the girls would've eaten you alive."

"But that won't hold them up for too long." he said with a frown.

"That's why I need your help." Grinning I explained my plan to him. Yay, playing-pranks-on-fangirls-time!

* * *

I went back into the classroom and inconspicuously walked to the window.

"Oh my! Look at that." I called out loud enough for everyone – especially the fangirls – to hear.

"What is Sasuke-kun doing there?" Thereby I pointed out the window at a hill with a tree, with Sasuke standing under it.

I barely finished my sentence as screaming girls charged at the window and then out of the room to hunt down the Sasuke out there.

A few seconds after the pack of hyenas disappeared came Sasuke into the room and earned confused looks from the others.

"Why is Sasuke here? Just a moment ago he was on that hill 4 miles away…" Kiba asked puzzled.

"Clone." I stated.

"Hn." Sasuke confirmed.

"Uzumaki Naruto." Iruka-sensei shouted out of his little chamber.

"Good luck, Naruto-kun." We comforted the now visibly nervous boy.

"Just wait, I'll pass this time, believe it!" he said and entered the testing room.

* * *

After the test…

"Poor Naruto, I feel sorry for him. Failing again…" I offered my commiserations. The blond was sitting on a swing, sulking.

"H-He's looking miserable…" Hinata stated looking sadly at him.

"He'll snap out of it soon enough." Kiba tried to soothe her. "It's not the first time he's failing."

"You may be right, but he really wanted to graduate with us together." I said thoughtfully.

When I looked back at Naruto I saw Mizuki standing behind him and saying something. Naruto's eyes instantly lightened up. Seems like Mizuki-sensei found a way to cheer him up, huh? Happy, that Naruto wasn't depressed anymore, we all then went to celebrate our graduation.

* * *

3 am…

*Bang bang*

Groaning I crawled out of bed and to the apartment door. Whoever dares to wake me in the middle of night seems to have a death wish!

Still half asleep I opened the door to see who wouldn't allow me to sleep and found – oh wonder – a hyperactive Naruto who beamed a smile at me.

"Minari-chan, I did it! I passed! Now I can graduate with you together, after all!"

"Uh-huh."

"And you know how I did it? First there was Mizuki-sensei who-"

WAMM

"Ouch, my nose!"

* * *

Phew, finally done. Wow, Naruto finally passed after failing oh so many times before and still being same age as the others… I still don't quite get it…

I thought about starting and another series either for ½ Prince or for Naruto again, but as things are now I don't really get to write anything… Oh well, at least I keep updating this story… I better go to bed now or I'll fall asleep on the keyboard…

Preview for next chapter:

_"I'll miss our time at the academy."_

_"Hn."_

_"I wonder how the team arrangements will be."_

_"Hn."_

_"I heard our new senseis are going to be Jonins. The training will certainly be hard."_

_"Hn."_

_"…"_

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	7. Team 7, huh?

Yay, next chapter done! Thanks again to Jestie Uchiha for reviewing! And thanks to all the guys who read this story, you're awesome!

Someone's here a fan of fairytail? Chapter 220, omzg Zeref's sooooo hot I almost started drooling all over the keyboard! (good thing I didn't otherwise I guess I'd to buy a new one…) He was cute before but the evil him is soo sexy! *cough* ehm yeah…

Ok enough rambling of mine, just enjoy reading!

* * *

**Sins and Sunshine**

Chapter 7: Team 7, huh?

(A/N: Omg I just noticed that chapter seven is about the beginning of team 7!)

The next day we had to meet again at the academy for orientation and miraculously after the finals my alarm clocks work again.

I was sitting on my favourite seat in the back next to the window, Sasuke sitting in front of me. Yeah, our bento-for-seat trade's still valid. It was still early so we were the only ones in the classroom.

"Today's the last time we'll wait for the others like this." I uttered hoping to start a kind of normal conversation with Sasuke.

"Hn." was his pre-eminent answer. First try fail, but I won't give up this easily!

"I'll miss our time at the academy."

"Hn."

"I wonder how the team arrangements will be."

"Hn."

"I heard our new senseis are going to be Jonins. The training will certainly be hard."

"Hn."

"…" This was going to be harder than expected.

"After this I'll have to go grocery shopping. Since Naruto's making me cooking for him lately my frigde is always empty."

"Hn."

"Today on the way here I was this squirrel…"

"Hn."

A vein popped on my forehead.

"You know, today your hair looks more duck butt-like than ever."

"What?"

Surprised he perked up and messed with his hair to make it look a bit less duck butt-like. Seeing this I couldn't hold back any longer and started roaring with laughter.

"Pfuahahahaha! S-Sorry but I c-couldn't resist." I told him between chuckles.

"Well you always answered the same way so I wanted to test if you even listened to me. Please don't be mad." I explained to escape his ultimate glare of doom. Someone here doesn't like to get laughed at~!

Slowly the other students came. Surprisingly of my friends was Naruto the first to appear.

"Morning, Minari-chan." He greeted me happily then sat down next to Sasuke. Why of all things we wanted he wanted to sit next to Sasuke, I don't know…

"Morning Naruto-kun." I greeted back.

"Scram, dope." Sasuke snarled at the blonde.

"Make me, teme!" retorted Naruto. Then the two males started a glaring contest.

Somehow that scene looks familiar… Déjà vu?

"Morning." Shikamaru said and wanted to sit down next to me than noticed a certain blonde.

"What are you doing here Naruto? This isn't for dropouts, you can't be here unless you graduate."

"Oh yeah? You see this, you see this? Open your eyes, Shikamaru it's a regulation headband. Now we are training together, how do you like that?"

Shikamaru only shrugged his shoulders then sat down. The sound of trampling came from the hallway and shortly after tried Pinky and Blondy to enter the class at the same time but got stuck in the doorframe. When they finally got in they started bickering for who was the first entering.

Technically it didn't really bother me until Pinky stood in front of Naruto, who looked at her, blushing. She merely shoved him away then asked Sasuke if she could sit next to him. Poor Naruto fell in love with the wrong girl. The while I watched the fangirls fighting for the seat next to Sasuke. Then Naruto crouched at the desk in front of Sasuke and graled at him. 2nd round of glaring-contest start!

If they move closer for 2 more cm they'd kiss, I thought and giggled at the thought. As if this would ever happen…

In this moment stretched the boy in the first row and pushed Naruto who landed exactly with his mouth on Sasuke's. Coincidentally in this exact moment I had my camera out and could make a photo of them kissing. What a nice souvenir – or blackmail photo if I need it someday.

After recovering from the shock they shoved off each over and looked like they were about to vomit, but unluckily for Naruto only now he noticed the deadly aura behind him. Because there were the fangirls who – unlike me – weren't amused at all from this. So Naruto got the beating of his life and only Iruka-sensei entering the room could save him from being killed by those furious girls.

The teacher held a little speech and as he mentioned that there were going to be three people each in a group, we all started to listen carefully. Of course, before no one listened. Who wanted to listen to some boring speech?

Blondy, who sat next to Shikamaru (hell, why?), provoked Pinky, who got to sit next to Sasuke after all, who might get to be paired with the black haired.

Then I zoned of until Iruka-sensei started to announce the squads we'd be in. Well, I still didn't listen until the names of my friends were called.

"Squad 7: Naruto Uzumaki." Naruto and I looked up.

"Sakura Haruno." Naruto was leaping of joy while Pinky sank down on the desk looking all depressed.

"And Sasuke Uchiha." Pinky cheered while Naruto became depressed. Then he started arguing with sensei why he had to be in the same team with the Uchiha.

"Sasuke had the best score of all the graduating students, Naruto you had the worst scores. And I haven't even finished speaking yet. In this squad will also be Minari Takanaki."

"What?" Pinky screamed.

"Any problems here?" Iruka-sensei asked.

"Why does SHE of all people has to be in the same squad as Sasuke and me?" she whined and pointed furiously at me. Pointing at people, how rude. Why does she hold such a grudge against me? It's not like I ever did something to her… Okay, cancel that last sentence, but still.

"Because the number of students that passed was off so we had to form a group of four."

"And why does she have to be in the group with Sasuke?"

"Because I say so."

"And why-"

"If you don't like it you're free to leave and leave and repeat the school year." Finally Pinky schut up and Sensei could continue to announce the other groups.

In squad 8 were Hinata, Kiba and Shino – I was really happy for Hinata to be in a group with friends, so she won't be so sad about not being in a team with Naruto. Shikamaru and Choji were in squad 10 together with Blondy. Poor them for being in the same situation as me, having some fangirl in the team, though we're better off because their fangirl hasn't her object of love in eyesight.

"Aww, I wanted to be in the same squad like Minari." Kiba whined.

"At least you don't have to be in one team with Ino." Shikamaru complained.

"Or with Pinky." I added.

"What do you mean with 'Pinky'?" bickered Pinky.

"Asked the girl with pink hair." I retorted languidly.

"Silence!" sensei shouted.

"After lunch you'll meet your new Jonin teachers. Until then class is dismissed." That was how our last classes with Iruka-sensei ended…

* * *

Lunch time…

We wanted to spend our last lunch together at the roof like always. Guess, I'll really miss those days…

"I don't get it. Why does Sakura-chan hate me like this?" Naruto whined. I tried to comfort him but still don't get it was he likes about this pinkhaired know-it-all-bitch.

"She doesn't hate you Naruto-kun." I said while patting his back.

"You saw how she reacted when Iruka-sensei announced we're in the same team."

"I guess she's still mad at you for kissing Sasuke." I said and snickered at the blonde grimacing.

"But she's always like this."

"What doesn't mean she hates you."

"Yes, it does!"

"Did she say so?"

"No, she didn't, but-"

"As long as she doesn't say so it's all right."

"You really think so?" he looked at me hopefully.

"Of course. I'm a girl, I know things like that. And if you don't believe me, go and ask her yourself."

"You're right. I'll ask her right away, believe it!" With that he ran off to find Pinky.

"I better wouldn't have said that…" I mused.

"He won't just go and ask her right in the face, will he?" Kiba asked, unsure of the blonde's mental state.

"He couldn't be that stupid… right?"

While we were happily betting if Naruto really was this stupid, Hinata was sitting in an edge and drew circles with her finger on the ground.

"Don't worry, Hinata-chan. Pinky really can't stand him. When Naruto finds out he'll soon enough give up on her." I soothed the girl.

"But I still want to know what he tries to pull off…" Kiba mumbled.

* * *

All teams met their new sensei. All except for us. So to punish the new sensei for being late Naruto stuck a blackboard eraser in the door crack.

"You're asking for trouble. You know, you shouldn't do that." Pinky lectured him.

"Our teacher's a Jonin. You think he'd fall for that?" Sasuke said looking irritated.

"Well, with my luck we'll just some idiot that'd fall just for that." I replied.

In this moment the door opened and some man came in. However he wasn't ninja enough to evade the eraser. Naruto: 1, sensei: 0.

The man was wearing Jonin clothes and a mask. His headband covered his left eye and his silver hair stood diagonally into the air. How did he do that without hair gel? Never heard of physical law?

Naruto laughed at the Jonin for falling for this prank, Pinky started to suck up to him, Sasuke just sat there doing nothing and I just sat at the desk and confirmed my apprehensions.

"What did I say?"

The new teacher looked at us.

"My first impression is" he said "I don't like you guys."

* * *

We went outside to make some self introduction to get a first (or 2nd, how you take it) impression of each other.

"Tell me your likes, dislikes, your dreams for the future and things like that." Sensei told us. But because no one wanted to say anything he had to start first.

"Well, my name is Hatake Kakashi. I have no desire to tell you my likes and dislikes… dreams for the future, hmm… and I have lots of hobbies."

"So all he told us is his name?" Sakura stated and we agreed with her. Well, Naruto and I did, Sasuke didn't seem to care at all.

The Naruto started introducing himself.

"My name is Uzumaki Naruto. What I like is cup ramen. What I like even more is when Iruka-sensei pays for my ramen. What I dislike is waiting 3 minutes for the ramen to cook. My dream is to surpass the hokage and then have the people of this village acknowledge my existence. Hobbies… pranks I guess."

After him was Pinky's turn.

"I'm Haruno Sakura. What I like… I mean the person I like is *glancing at Sasuke* Uh my hobby is uh… *more glancing at Sasuke while giggling* My dream for the future is *starts to squeal* What I dislike is Naruto!" (Well finally got your answer there, Naruto-kun…)

… Okay I guess everyone know what she was thinking. Someone should tell her that raping is illegal…

Next was Sasuke.

"My name is Uchiha Sasuke. There are lots of things I dislike and I don't really like anything and… I can't really call it a dream. But I have an ambition. The resurrection of my clan and to kill a certain man."

Wow, I just felt some murderous vibe coming from him… Well, then was my turn.

"My name's Takanaki Minari. I like to relax and pissing off fangirls." Here I felt a glare from a certain pinkhaired fangirl that tried burning holes in my body and I swore I saw Sasuke smiling for a second there. "What I don't like… I hate people that fear something just because they don't know it and for that try to destroy it. My dream for the future is finding a place to call home and the happiness of a person really dear to me…"

Everyone stared at me buffled and I smiled uncomfortably. Did I say something wrong?

Then sensei began to speak again.

"So far to the introductions. Tomorrow we'll start our duties as Shinobi."

"Yeah! What kinds of duties?" Naruto asked enthusiastically.

"First we are going to do something with just the four of us. Survival training."

Pinky and Naruto started complaining about they had enough training in academy and all.

"What kind of training?" I asked to shut the two of them up.

Then Kakashi-sensei started laughing. Suspicious…

"What's so funny sensei?" Pinky asked warily.

"When I tell you this you guys are totally going to freak out. Of the 31 graduates only 9 will be chosen to become Genin. The rest will be sent back to the academy. This training is a very difficult exam with a failure rate of over 66%."

Naruto then really freaked out but sensei just told us to bring all the shinobi tools we have for tomorrow.

"Oh, and skip breakfast, you'll might throw up."

* * *

Okay, that was it. Most of the spoken text was from the anime or the manga but the next time I guess I won't copy it word for word, too troublesome… I just noticed something again… In the manga Kakashi said there were 27 graduates but there are also 10 teams, so either there are 30 graduates or 9 teams, right?

Curious about Minari's past? Mwahaha you'll still have to wait for that, hyahahaha *laughs hysterically*

Please review if you liked it. If you didn't like it, still review please^^

Preview for next chapter: How to survive the survival training

"_Oi, Minari-chan! Can you help me?" Naruto shouted when he saw me approaching. Great Naruto. Keep shouting so Kakashi-sensei will find me!_

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	8. How to survive the survival training

Salut! I'm still alive! Thanks to Azura Soul Reaver and Jestie Uchiha for their review and thanks to all the lovely readers of this story out there, I love you all!

Today's my brother's birthday, so happy birthday, bro! (Not that he would ever read this, but who cares) And happy birthday to me, I got 17 this week. ^^ Yeah, this month many people I know have birthday, about 6 friends or so. Whatever. Here's chapter 8 so enjoy!

* * *

**Sins and Sunshine  
**

Chapter 8: How to survive the survival training

What happened last time:

"_Oh, and skip breakfast, you'll might throw up."_

Who cares, I still ate breakfast 'cause I was hungry. Nothing can get me to skip my meals!

* * *

"Morning." I mumbled still dead tired from falling out of bed at 4 am. Heck, the sun didn't even rise yet! Why would anyone want to meet this early?

Of course Sasuke was the first one there, slowly I wonder if he ever goes home… However I was too sleepy to ask him about that, so I didn't. Instead I went to the nearest tree and leapt onto a branch that looked comfy enough to sleep on. And yeah, there are differences in the comfort of branches!

After I made myself comfortable the last thing I saw was Sasuke leaning agains my tree before I drifted off to sleep.

* * *

"Hey, You're late!" I heard two voices shout.

Unfortunately that startled me out of sleep quite rudely which resulted in me falling backwards from the tree. I waited for the hard impact with the ground, but all that I felt was a little jolt of being caught by someone. And that was Sasuke who held me bridal style and carried me to where the others were standing.

I sleepily gazed to the sky. The sun already rose and I estimated it to be around 8 am. Judging from the shouting before our sensei seemed to be 3 hours late. Someone cleared their throat to jolt me out of my thoughts and my gaze from the sky. Sakura was glaring at me impatiently stamping with one foot on the ground. Only now I realised that I was still in Sasuke's arms but he didn't seem to really mind. He then let me down so I could stand on my own. I straightened my kimono and looked at Kakashi-sensei with an completely innocent expression.

"What took you so long, Sensei?" I then asked him.

"A black cat crossed my path so I had to take the long way." He replied with such a serious expression, what left me stunned. If I'd bring such a lame excuse, I couldn't even say it probably without braking out in laughter.

The sensei cleared his throat and walked to an alarm clock. He then explained to us that we'd have to steal three bells from him until noon, otherwise we wouldn't get anything to eat and had to watch him eat lunch. Good that I already had breakfast unlike my team mates judging from the growling of their stomachs.

Then Pinky asked the most important question.

"But we are four. Why are there only three bells?"

Nicely observed, Sakura, as expected from a ninja!

Kakashi answered smiling, that this way at least one would fail and had to be sent back to the academy.

Furthermore he told us that we could use all kind of weapons against him, but our oh so kind-hearted couldn't-even-kill-a-fly-Sakura complained that weapons were too dangerous. Yeah, as if she would ever beat a fully trained jounin. If she's afraid of weapons, why did she even choose to become a ninja?

Naruto remembered the scene with the eraser and started to laugh. Then sensei insulted him as looser and dead last and all and Naruto stopped laughing to glare at him.

"When I say start, you can begin." He said totally ignoring the blonde that now took out a kunai to charge at him. But before we even knew what happened Kakashi already grabbed Naruto's arm and let the kunai point at the back of his head.

"I didn't say start yet."

We all tensed and watched the jounin carefully. He was fast, so fast that we couldn't see a thing. This test is anything but easy! Alone I'd never be able to get one of the bells. But maybe with the help of the others…

"But you're finally prepared to come at me with the intent to kill. He he, it seems I'm beginning to like you guys. Okay let's get going. Ready." We took up a stance.

"Begin!"

In the wink of an eye we jumped away from him and hid in the proximity. I was on a tree. Next to me I heard a soft rustle. Looking in the direction of the noise I saw Sasuke. He chose the same hideout as me. Further afar I recognized Pinky under a bush. Blame the pink hair for being too flashy.

Well, for me this was the perfect chance to convince the others to work together.

I sneak to Sasuke, who shot a glance at me and looked back to Kakashi after he recognized me.

"Listen, Sasuke-kun." I whispered.

"Just now you saw how strong he is. If everyone acts on his own, we'll never be able to get a bell."

"And what do you suggest we do?"

"Work together."

"No."  
"Why not?"

"They just hold me back."

"We could distract him, while you try to take the bells from him."

"We'll only fight over who gets one."

"We can sort things out after we have them."

With this Sasuke seemed to agree, now I only had to convince the other two.

But before we could do anything, Naruto jumped right in front of Kakashi to challenge him. Good bye, surprise effect…

Naruto charged at Kakashi and I took the opportunity to sneak to Sakura under the bush. She looked at me with a horrified expression.

"How could you find me?"

"Your hair is unmissable, but listen. We need to work together to beat Kakashi. Sasuke already agreed to this so-"

"Sasuke-kun? Agreed!"

Okay, that was fast…

"Okay, I'll try to convince Naruto, then we can come up with a plan."

As we looked back to Naruto's fight with Kakashi we could see him kneeling behind the blonde, making the tiger-sign with his hands.

"Naruto, run away! You're going to get killed!" Sakura screaming and jumped up.

Now he knows where we were hiding. Way to go, thank you very much, Pinky!

Meanwhile Naruto tried again to beat sensei what got pretty boring by boring so I didn't pay attention anymore. Instead I looked for a new place to hide.

As I looked back Naruto was hanging headfirst from a tree and Kakashi lectured him. Then shuriken came flying at him and hit. Seems like Sasuke took the chance to make his first move. How I knew that it was Sasuke? Pinky doesn't like weapons, of course, and I'm pretty sure I didn't do it. I think.

But sensei used the replacement-justu. From the corner of my eye I saw Sasuke running away. With this attack he revealed his hiding place.

I took the chance to help my dear blonde friend out of his misery and jumped to the ground. Then I heard a loud cry. Seems like Pinky got caught.

"Oi, Minari-chan! Can you help me?" Naruto shouted when he saw me approaching. Great Naruto. Keep shouting so Kakashi-sensei will find me!

I cut the rope and he fell face first on the ground.

"Ow, Minari-chan, can't you be a bit more gentle?" he whined.

"I could as well have left you there." I replied. I mean, is that a way to thank someone who helped you?

"Listen, Naruto-kun." I then started.

"We plan to beat Kakashi as a team. Are you in?"

"I don't think that'll help but why not." He said sitting on the floor with crossed legs and arms and nodded.

"Good. Then we'll meet with the others." I said smiling and turned to go looking for the other two. Then I heard Naruto screaming again. Did he fall into a trap again? Naah, not even he can be this stupid.

* * *

I was looking for Sasuke and Pinky as I heard a loud scream. Good, now I know where to find Pinky!

I was running in the direction of the scream. As I stepped out of some bushed I saw Pinky being out cold lying on the floor.

"What happened to you?" I asked the unconscious girl in front of me. Not very smart to talk to unconscious people, I know.

"Minari-chan?" I was looking up from the girl and to Sasuke who stuck in the ground up to his chin.

"What are you doing there?" I asked him.

"I got taken in by Kakashi." He admitted angrily.

I stepped in frond of him did a few hand-seals an stomped on the ground so Sasuke got lifted out of the hole.

How did you-?" I smiled then shifted my attention to the girl on the ground.

"O~I, Wakey wakey! Now's no time to be sleeping!" I shouted while giving her slaps on both cheeks. I blinked a few time and Sasuke bend over her. As she opened her eyes she fell him around the neck and was really glad that he was okay.

"Why does my face hurt?" she then suddenly realised.

"We didn't have water to wake you." I answered and shrugged my shoulders. She got what I meant and shot glares at me.

"Let's go. I want one of these bells." Sasuke urged us. We both looked at him with shocked expression for him saying something out of his own free will.

"But wait, where's Naruto? I told him to meet up with us." I pointed out after noticing the lack of a certain blonde.

"Who cares. We still have no chance to get the bells." Pinky whined.

"Not necessarily. Last time I already touched one." Sasuke explained. (A/N: Someone noticed that Sasuke's talking pretty much in this part of the anime?)

"Then we'd have a chance." I mused.

But as we were standing there and thought about what to do the alarm went off and announced the end of the test.

Defeated we went to the stone memorial from where we heard the alarm clock ring. There we found Naruto being tied to a post. You know, that one for training and all.

"Naruto-kun, why are you tied up?" I asked him astonished.

"He wanted to eat all by himself so I punished him." Kakashi-sensei explained after suddenly appearing out of nowhere.

"Oh and by the way. There's no need for you guys to go back to the academy."

Our eyes lit up. Does this mean he wants to let us all pass? No, that can't be, there's something more behind it…

"Does than mean, all four of us…?"

"Yup, all four of you should quit as shinobi!" he said with a smile. Nice. Smiling while saying something so cruel!

Outraged we looked at him. Naruto started complaining and as Kakashi called us punks, Sasuke jumped up took a kunai and charged at him. He pinned the boy on the ground and sat down on him, securing the hand with the weapon.

"You think, it's always about you." Sensei started to lecture us.

"Why do you think you got divided into teams and are doing this training?"

That made us thinking. Then it came to me.

"Teamwork." I muttered.

"Right." Sensei said.

"The three of you working together may have gotten the bells."

"But there are only three bells. What teamwork? That just makes us fight each other!" Pinky complained.

"The purpose is to see whether you can forget about your own interest and successfully work together under these designed circumstances." He explained. "Sakura, you only cared about Sasuke, the other two were completely nonrelevant for you. Naruto, you were just running around by yourself. Sasuke, you just assumed the others would get in your way and tried to do everything yourself. And Minari, I didn't see anything of you. It seems you take this training too lightly!"

Too lightly, my ass!

"The duties are done by the team. Of course superior individual ability is important to a ninja. But what's even more important is teamwork!"

From this point on I blanked him out, until he got a kunai out of his pouch, held it to Sasuke's throat and told Sakura to kill Naruto otherwise he'd kill Sasuke. We looked at him shocked, unable to do anything. He then put his kunai away and said that this happens all the time. The he continued with his lecture about the memorial and all and again I spaced out. Who cares about being lectured by his sensei?

Then a word fell that made me perk my ears. Lunch! He could eat lunch but weren't allowed to share any with Naruto. If we do, we fail. After this we were allowed to try again with the bells. That said he disappeared.

Sasuke, Sakura and I each took a bento and ate a bit. It was simple rice. I looked from my rice to Naruto and back to my rice.

"Here." I said and held out my bento to him.

"I already had breakfast so you can have this."

Sasuke briefly looked at me than also gave his food to Naruto. The blond was looking between us and was stirred and although Pinky complained at the beginning soon she as gave him her food, as well. Unfortunately Naruto was still ties to the post so she had to feed him.

In this moment Kakashi appeared in front of us with loud sound effects.

"You broke the rules. I hope you're ready for the punishment!" he said and made a few hand signs. Clouds appeared followed by lightning and thunder.

"Any last words?"

"You said that there are four of us! That's what you said and that's why…" Naruto started and looked as us pleading for backup.

"We're all on this squad and we're all in it together." Sasuke said.

"Yeah that's right. We gave our lunch to him because the four of us are one." Sakura affirmed.

"The four of you are one, that's your excuse?"

"That's right." I said.

"You pass." Kakashi said smiling.

Instantly the sky cleared. We couldn't believe what he just said, but he repeated it so I couldn't just have imagined it.

"You guys are the first. Everyone else would just do whatever I told them. They were all just morons. A ninja must se underneath the underneath. Those who break the rules are called trash. But you know what? Those do don't take care of their friends are lower than trash." We shouted out of joy, or just smiled contently, in Sasuke's case. Then I remembered a little detail.

"But if only 9 persons can become genin, would that mean one of us gets into another group?"

"Don't worry. The hokage decided if this group passes, 10 students'll be able to become genin." Kakashi clarified and I heaved a sight of relief. I didn't want to get separated from these guys.

Overhappy that we passed, Sasuke, Sakura and I went with our sensei back to the village.

"Didn't we forget something?" I asked midway, having a feeling that we forgot something important.

"Not that I know of." Sakura answered and one can rely on her huge brain.

* * *

Meanwhile with Naruto…

"God damn it! I knew this would happen, believe it! Untie me!" he shouted while desperately trying to chase away the squirrels that seem to consider his head a giant nut or something.

But his pleading cries for help faded away in the peaceful silence of the forest…

* * *

Ya~y, they passed! Okay, would be boring if they didn't so it wasn't that surprising, but still! There's not much to say this time. Please review! It makes me really happy! Oh, there's something after all… I plan on writing a new story. The first three chapters are already written. It's about a girl that dies and gets reborn in the Naruto world, so if you're interested stay tuned! I may upload the first chapter next week or so, depending on my mood. Okay enough advertising for now…

Too lazy for preview but I'll tell you the name of the next chapter:

_Let's go to the country of waves!_

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	9. Let's go to the Land of Waves!

Servus! And again an update, yay! Thanks to Mirani and Jestie Uchiha for reviewing, I'll treat you guys to ramen when I finally found the way into the Naruto world! (still working on it, though)

I'm so SORRY, I'm a whole week too late, but this week was like HELL. I even only slept half the amount I normally do! But I know this is just a lame excuse so for compensation this chapter is extra long. Well at least it's longer than the others...

Just now I realised that Gaara _still _didn't have his appearance! I have to update a bit faster from now on. At least until Gaara finally appears… Or else he'll come and kill me with his creepy sand attacks… But if he would do this, it would mean he knows the way to the Naruto world… Death, Naruto world, death, Naruto world… tough decision!

Sometimes I wonder… is anyone even reading my rants? Well, nevermind. Read and enjoy!

* * *

**Sins and Sunshine**

Chapter 9: Let's go to the Land of Waves!

"I got 'em! I got 'em!" Naruto shouted as he held tight to a cat that desperately tried to get away from him.

"Lost pet Tora captured. Mission accomplished." Kakashi-sensei announced.

- We're finally Genin now. But all missions we got were doing household chores or, like this time, capturing escaped pets. Normally I don't mind, especially since this is easier work than some suicide like a-rank-missions, but somehow… -

"Ow, ow! Guys, help me! Ow!" Naruto cried while the cat kept making more scratches on his face. Seems she doesn't like him… But who would after being forcefully held by Naruto?

I walked to the human scratching post and took the cat, that made itself comfortable in my arms and started purring.

"That's not fair! Why is she attacking me, but not you?" Naruto complained after I generously freed him from the oh-so-scary monster. Why, no problem, Naruto, thanks for all the gratitude!

"That's because cat feel attached to lonely people." Sakura aka Pinky tried to tease me.

"More like I'm good with animals, unlike you." I retorted and fondled the little cat. So cute!

"T-That's not true!" she defended herself. Very convincing. Not.

"Hello little Tora." she purred to the cat but instantly recoiled because the cat started hissing at her. I shrugged my shoulders and petted her head for successfully fighting off the pink threat.

"Maybe she likes me." Kakashi-sensei said but got hissed at just like the girl before him. I promised the cat a treat when we get back for not only fighting off Pinky but also the pervy-sensei. Hmmh, maybe I should get myself a cat, too…

"Maybe she only likes Minari." Kakashi tried to console himself and his two students, mainly himself.

But then there came Sasuke and petted Tora's head, that started to purr again and this way completely destroyed the last ray of hope of the others, so they now feel completely unloved. Well done, Sasuke. Maybe I should get you a treat, too…

* * *

"Why did you buy that cat a treat?" Naruto, who amazingly fast recovered from the cat scratches, asked me while glancing at the cat in my arms that appreciatively munched the cat food I gave her while we brought her back to the Hokage's office.

"Because she successfully fought off pervy-sensei and Pinky."

"Hey! Stop calling me Pinky!" the pinkhaired kunoishi shouted.

"I'm not perverted!" Kakashi-sensei complained hiding a perverted book behind his back.

"And for what are these?" Sasuke asked eyeing the sandwiches I gave him.

"For destroying their hope, because Tora likes you, too." I explained happily. Thunderclouds formed over Naruto's, Pinky's and pervy-sensei's head and they muttered a 'not fair!'.

"In fact, when did you buy those?" Naruto continued asking.

"When we passed that shop." I pointed in the direction where I came from.

"And could you have been this fast?"

"There was no one queued up at the cash desk."

"And why didn't we notice you buying these things?"

"I dunno. Maybe I'm ninja enough to sneak away without getting noticed. Or you aren't ninja enough to notice me sneaking away. Or you simply ignored me all the time. Take your pick."

Finally we reached the office so Naruto couldn't ask me stupid questions anymore. I knocked on the door to announce us and then pushed it open.

"We're ba-"

"Ohh, my cute little Tora. Mommy was so worried about her little boy!" a fat lady shouted and pulled the cat out of my grip.

"Tora is male?" I whispered to Sasuke was the was standing nearest to me while we entered the office.

"Hn."

"So why has he a red ribbon?" I asked. He just shrugged his shoulders.

Pitying I saw to the poor cat that got squashed in the arms of the fat lady.

"No wonder it ran away…" I muttured.

"Hn." Sasuke agreed with a little smile. Wow, I actually managed to make Sasuke Uchiha, wait that didn't come across well enough, THE Sasuke Uchiha smile! That's about as rare as Naruto getting a A+ in a test!

"Now there." Hokage said to get out attention.

"For squad 7's next mission we have several available tasks. Babysitting an elder's grandson, shopping in the neighbouring village, help with the potato digging,…"

"Noooo! I wanna go on a real mission!" Naruto interrupting the Hokage in reading our a~wesome next missions and forming a 'X' with his arms.

-By the way, where did the fat lady run off to?-

Of course he immediately got scolded by Iruka-sensei. Who long he was already there we shall never know.

But Naruto kept complaining and the Hokage started to explain the ranks of missions to him and from this point on I stopped listening.

Ah there was the fat lady again! She was paying the reward for getting her cat back. Yay, money!

Then the others got bored, too, and Naruto started to tell us what he ate yesterday, which was ironically still more interesting than the speech of the Hokage, who only noticed at the end of his speech that nobody paid attention to him.

But Naruto kept complaining and that he wasn't a little kid anymore, but a ninja and now wanted a real mission. After that he sat down on the floor and started pouting. Very mature Naruto, very mature.

To our all surprise, his acting like a little child actually helped, because the Hokage gave us a c-rank-mission: The protection of a certain individual. Our naïve little Naruto, of course, wanted right away to protect a princess. Yeah, as if they would send a few weak genin to protect a princess.

And then Hokage called in the one we had to escort. It was an old man with grey hair and a two-day-old beard. He held a bottle of beer in his hand and reeked of alcohol. He eyed our team.

"The shortest one with the super stupid-looking face. Are you really a ninja?" he scoffed at Naruto. Naruto, at first, laughed and asked who was the shortest, then realised that it was him and freaked out. Well done, old man, this way you'll surely be popular with us. Not.

Again the man took a pull on his bottle, before he finally decided to introduce himself to us.

"I'm the super expert bridge builder, Tazuna. I expect you to provide me super protection until I get back to my country and complete the bridge."

Aha… ever heard of modesty? Seemingly not.

* * *

After everyone packed his bags we met at the main gate of Konoha to set off. I didn't want to go on this mission. The bright sun was high in the clear blue sky and it didn't rain for weeks. Who would want to wander about in a misty place like the Land of waves while there's such perfect weather?

Our group barely went a few steps out of the gate when Naruto ran ahead and uttered a cry of joy.

"What are you so excited about?" Pinky asked irritatedly.

"Because I've never left the village before!" the hyperactive ninja explained while excessively looking from one side to the other.

"Hey, am I really going to be safe with that brat?" Tezuna asked sceptically. I somewhat could understand him. If some random hyper brat wanted to protect me I would also fear for my physical – and mental – health.

"Haha… Well, I'm a jonin, don't worry." Kakashi-sensei soothed him with a smile.

"Hey, old man. Don't mess with ninja!" Naruto shouted and told him about his dream of becoming Hokage – like always. But since I heard that almost every day I focused on my surroundings instead. Somehow I had a feeling that something bad would happen on this c-rank-mission. You know this, when you have this really bad feeling about something but can't quite explain why? That's how I feel at the moment. But maybe I'm just being paranoid and should just ignore it… Yep, ignoring is a good idea.

Meanwhile Naruto continued his fight with the bridge builder and once again had to be stopped by Kakashi-sensei from attacking the client. No client attacking, Naruto. This way we won't get any money! Well, after this we proceeded on our way.

Then again I had this bad feeling but this time many times stronger, as if something harmful would be near.

"Did you feel this, too?" I whispered to Sasuke. He has really sharp senses so if there really was something he would surely have noticed it.

"Hn?" he looked at me questioningly.

"Nothing, forget it."

Apparently it really just was my imagination. I shrugged and increased my walking speed to catch up with the others. I didn't even notice that I came to a halt while being in thoughts. Then why was Sasuke standing right next to me? Did he wait for me?

"Stop being on such good terms with Sasuke!" Sakura snarled at me when I was walking past her. I looked at her nonchalantly.

"What's so bad at being on good terms with your team mates?"

"Everything if it's about you and Sasuke-kun!"

"Jealous?"

"Not!"

"As if." I muttered and walked over to Naruto to get away from the pink threat. Since I hadn't a cat with me this time I had to do this on the traditional way, meaning purposely ignoring her.

Later Sakura asked Kakashi-sensei if the Land of waves had any ninja and he answered with a no. Then he told her something about the different shinobi villages and co.

_Omigod! Kakashi tries to be a sensei! Quickly, distraction, distraction! Oh, a squirrel!_I watched the cute squirrel as it sat on a tree and ate a nut. _Awww!_

I finally started listening again when sensei assured us that it would be very unlikely to encounter enemy ninja at a c-rank-mission. I hope so!

Later we crossed a little bridge over a rivulet. Why would anyone need a bridge to cross this rivulet? It was so was that one didn't even have to jump over it. Waste of tax money.

I gazed at the sky. There still wasn't even a single cloud and the sun gently shone through the treetops. This day truly was too beautiful to spend it in a ever-nebulous country. Ahead I saw a little puddle, what in itself was strange because, like already mentioned, it didn't rain for weeks. But I took the opportunity and leaped into the puddle of water. For a brief moment it sounded like the puddle was moaning. Can puddles moan?

"What are you doing? How childish." Pinky nagged to the nth time, but I happily ignored her – like always – and ran straight to Kakashi-sensei.

"Sensei, can puddles moan?"

We others gave me a confused look. However Kakashi spun around but unfortunately too slow, because he was already getting attacked be two enemy ninja, who came out of the puddle. So that's why the puddle moaned. I apparently stepped on the head of one of them. At least I hope it was only the head. You never know!

The enemies chained Kakashi with an iron rope that had shuriken-like links. Then they pulled on it and Kakashi got torn to pieces. At least it looked like that. I doubt that a jonin would actually fall for a simple move like that. But we couldn't really see what happened to him because of the dust cloud, so Sakura and Naruto thought he died. So much trust in our sensei, wow.

Meanwhile the attackers appeared behind Naruto who was frozen from shock and couldn't even move a finger. They wanted to attack him the same way like Kakashi but I pulled him out of the way just in time before he got ripped to pieces.

Sasuke jumped up and pinned their chain with a shuriken and a kunai on a tree, this way the enemy ninja couldn't move anymore because the chain was connected to their gloves. Sasuke then jumped on their arms, grabbed their gloves and kicked their faces.

However the two ninja detached the chain and one charged at Tezuna while the other lunged at Naruto. I decided that Naruto needed my help more than Tezune at the moment, because he had Sakura as a meat shield and Sasuke came to his help, so I shoved the blond again out of the way, crouched down and kicked for the evil ninja's legs. His caught my leg and slung me away. I landed on my feet and wanted to launch at him again but in this moment Kakashi, who wasn't dead after all– oh wonder –, appeared behind him and hit him unconscious. Then he did the same with the other one before he could even reach the bridge builder.

Sakura was simply happy that the sensei was still alive, Sasuke wore his already-knew-expression and Naruto saw amazed at the shreds of wood that lay in the dirt instead of Kakashi.

"Naruto, sorry for not helping you right away. At least Minari came to protect you." sensei said with a disappointed look in his eye. So much for the next Hokage…

Then he turned to Sasuke, Sakura and me.

"Well done, Sasuke, Minari. You, too, Sakura."

Naruko looked like he was suffering because he couldn't do anything.

"Hey" Sasuke said smirking at Naruto.

"You okay, Mr. scaredy cat?"

Naruto snapped and run towards him.

"Sasukeeeeee!"

"Leave it alone, Naruto." I stopped him.

"If I hadn't help you, you would've gotten severly injured or even killed. So if you want to be angry at someone, be angry at yourself."

"Hey, Minari! That's mean of you!" Sakura complained and felt sorry for the blond who right now looked like a beaten dog.

"But it's true!" I defended myself. I also felt sorry for him but pity won't get him anywhere. I think.

"You're right, Minari-chan. I'll do my best from now on." Naruto cheered up but I we all knew that this big smile of his was fake. Wow, I feel really bad now… Well, I just smiled and ruffled his hair.

"Tazuna-san." Kakashi addressed the old man.

"I need to talk to you."

* * *

After tying the two ninja to a tree Kakashi-sensei explained to us that they were from the land of the mist and told us some other facts.

Then the two wanted to know how he knew what they planned.

"On a sunny day when it hadn't rained in days, a water puddle shouldn't exist. Oh and Minari over there said that the puddle moaned." the jonin explained.

"What needs that fucking brat to jump into it, anyways." one of them mumbled. My eye twitched and I kicked into his face. I hope I broke his nose…

"What are you doing, Minari-chan?" Naruto asked shocked.

"He insulted me." I simply said and withdrew. Hey, I just don't like it if someone insults me!

Then sensei continued his explanation of why he didn't step in at the beginning and that they were after the bridge builder and so on. Honestly, what do I care? I just want to get over with this mission as fast as possible and then go home. So please, less talking, more hurrying up!

Later Pinky suggested to abandon the mission and go back, but Naruto just had to get his way and so we continued this stupid mission. Dang it!

* * *

Poor Minari is forced to work. Haha! Okay, happy with the length of the chappy? Not mad at me anymore? Aaaargh, please don't hit meee! *hides under the desk* I'm sorry, I'll try to always update on time!

Anyways… Seems like I'm developing a slip personality or something like that… Strange… but it would be fun somehow – I think…

Ok~ next chapter team 7 encounters Zabuza! Stay tuned!

Too lazy for any preview, but I'll update next weekend so you don't have to wait too long.^^


	10. Here comes Zabuza

Huhu! Here's the next chapter! Big thanks to Azura Soul Reaver and Jestie Uchiha for your review! I'm sorry that I don't reply very often, I just never know what to write back. If it annoys you feel free to tell me so.

Finally! After two whole fucking weeks I'm FINALLY able to update! I tried every day for two whole weeks and every time there came this error message. I'm really sorry for the delay but for once it totally wasn't my fault. The worst thing about this is that I was actually early with my update... Well, c'est la vie!

Not much to say today… I'm hungry…

* * *

Sins and Sunshine

Chapter 10: Here comes Zabuza

We decided to carry on our mission.

Anyway we proceeded on our way and when we reached the sea we entered a little boat that should bring us to the land of waves. Now we were drifting through the thickest fog, where we couldn't even see what was ahead of us. I miss the sun!

After some time we could make out a bridge in construction that slowly emerged from the mist.

"Huge!" Naruto shouted amazed from the size of the bridge, but was immediately silenced by the ferryman that he should be quiet so we won't get noticed.

This sounded pretty suspicious so Kakashi-sensei decided again that it would be best to question the bridge builder about it. He wanted to know why ninjas were after him otherwise the mission would end as soon as we reached the shore. Great! And here I am hoping that after getting him home safely we could finally go back to Konoha!

Full suspension we waited for Tazuna's explanation with which he really took his time. Than after some time of silence he finally coughed it up.

"The one who seeks my life is a very short man who casts a very long and deadly shadow." Wow, that's a really helpful explanation. Not. Really, how would anyone know who the bad guy was with just that? I mean, small and mighty, that could be just any businessman or drug lord!

"Who is it?" Kakashi-sensei rephrased his question to get a more precise answer. Then finally he told us the name. It was some rich shipping magnate called Gatou. Then Kakashi did what he could do best: telling us more or less important facts. That he's – guess what – a business leader and everyone knows him.

"Who? Who? What? What?" Naruto asked eagerly.

The last things I overheard were that he was very dangerous and ruthless and that it is his fault that this land was so poor. Then I got distracted by a fish. Yes, a fish. He jumped out of the water and caught a fly. Why does it jump out of the water for that? Can't it just wait till the fly comes near the water?

"We'll be there soon." the ferryman announced.

We were passing a dimly lit tunnel. As we reached the end of the tunnel the mist had cleared and ahead of us was an idyllic fishing village. It was built on poles and mangroves grew in the shallow water.

"Beautiful." I whispered in awe and leaned over the edge of the boat to get a better view. If that really helped, I'm not quite sure…

Unfortunately in this moment little wave hit the boat and I lost my balance.

SPLASH!

* * *

"The next time we travel by boat you should pay more attention." Kakashi-sensei lectured me the nth time since they pulled me out of the water. It was colder than I thought…

"." I muttered annoyed. It just figures that something like this would happen and do I learn from my mistakes? No. So why bother.

We were on the way to Tazuna's house – I wonder why he didn't live at the shore like everyone else – and Naruto ran ahead. Sasuke decided not to let the blonde have the lead and sped up until I was walking next to him. Naturo was annoyed of this so he observed the environment and threw a kunai in a random direction.

We all startled up and got ready for whatever enemy Naruto might have attacked, but Naruto just laughed shyly and announced that it was just a rat. He repeated that because he saw a shadow or something.

But this time he almost killed a bunny that now leaned against a tree and was completely traumatized. Shocked Naruto took it and cuddled it as an apology which made it, in my opinion, only worse.

Suddenly that feeling returned that the were watched and also Kakashi tensely observed our surroundings.

"Are we getting watched?" I asked him whispering.

"Seems like it." he answered still keeping his eye on the surrounds.

All of a sudden a huge butcher knife-sword-thingy came flying out of nowhere. We all ducked and it got stuck in the trunk of a tree. Poor, innocent tree, didn't do anything wrong.

Then on the king-size knife appeared a man with bandages covering the lower half of his face and arm- and legwarmers. Judging by his forehead protector he was a ninja from Kirigakure (Yes, guys, I actually paid attention sometimes back at the academy!). But shirt was left at home, or what? Well, at least he has abs.

"Well, well, if it isn't the hidden mist's missing-nin Momochi Zabuza." Kakashi growled. He seems to know him…

Naruto wanted to attack him but Kakashi stopped him and explained that he wasn't just an ordinary ninja.

Giant butcher knife-man said something about Kakashi having the Sharingan. But that couldn't be possible because only members of the Uchiha-clan possess the Sharingan. Right? At least Sasuke seemed to be thinking the same like me, because me starred in a shocked manner (Mind: Sasuke and shocked!) at our sensei.

"Surround and protect Tazuna-san." Kakashi commanded in a dead serious tone, like we never heard from him before. Then he told us not to interrupt in this fight and pulled his forehead protector up to reveal a red eye with three black commas in it. So this was the Sharingan… First time seeing one…

Of course little naïve Naruto first needed an explanation of what the Sharingan actually was. This time Sasuke undertook this task and Zabuza put in his two cents. Why he wanted to show us his knowledge so badly was beyond my understanding.

After some more talking the fighting finally started and we got to our position to protect the bridge builder. I stood at his back so I didn't get to see much fighting.

Then again I got the feeling of being watched. _Gosh, that's already the third time today. Is it really that interesting to watch us? Well, at least now I know that he isn't alone…_

The others were too occupied with fighting/watching the fight to sense it, thought. Due to Zabuza's mist-jutsu our vision again got limited to a few meters, so I couldn't locate the second enemy. Then I got a little idea. With my special unbeaten ultimate stalking justu of doom I should be able to detect him.

_Ultimate stalking jutsu of stealing away without anyone noticing you! _(I know it's no real jutsu, but it always worked since now!)

* * *

Outside-POV…

After the battle between Kakashi and Zabuza (A/N: I skipped this part, 'cause it'd be plain boring summarizing… oh and I'm lazy.)…

Just as Kakashi wanted to finish Zabuza off he got hit in the throat by two senbon-needles. Everyone blankly starred at the masked boy who was standing on a tree branch and watched the nuke-nin falling lifeless on the ground.

Kakashi and the masked ninja, who actually was a hunter-nin of the hidden mist, chatted a bit, then Naruto complained about how stupid they looked now after a kid defeated Zabuza this easily. Kakashi then began lecturing the frustrated genin that there are ninjas younger than Naruto yet stronger than him. Meanwhile the masked boy took Zabuza's dead body and disappeared in the wind – not noticing a small shadow following him.

"He's gone!" Naruto shouted amazed and shocked at the same time and searched around the tree for the ninja. Sure, as if he would hide behind the tree. Then he let out his frustration on the poor ground, that didn't do anything wrong.

"Uhh, you know who's also missing?" Sakura asked hesitating and looking around her. Kakashi and Sasuke immediately understood, Naruto needed some time until he noticed it as well.

"Where's Minari-chan?"

* * *

After some time of searching and not finding the missing genin, Kakashi decided that it was pointless to keep looking for her, instead they should carry on with their mission.

"And what will become of Minari?" Sasuke asked with a dark voice, which Sakura didn't like one bit because it was quite obvious that he was worried about her.

"Don't worry. She's clever enough to avoid trouble and will surely come after us, wherever she may be right now." Kakashi assured him and passed out right after finishing his sentence.

"We should bring him to my home." Tazuna said and the group set off to the house of the bridge builder.

* * *

At the same time… Still Outside-POV…

"First I cut the mouth cloth." The young ninja muttered as he wanted to cut the bandages of the numb body in front of him with some sort of scissors.

But Zabuza grabbed his arm with one hand and with the other he loosened the cloth.

"That's alright. I do it myself." he said and pointy teeth flashed in his mouth.

"Oh, you're already come back to life." the boy pointed out.

Then the evil nuke-nin complained that the boy who saved his life was too rough. Ohhh, poor, poor dangerous criminal.

"Haku, how long are you going to wear that stupid mask?" Zabuza asked the boy.

"You really think that's a good idea, while we are-"

"Take it off." Zabuza commanded tiredly.

"And you, show yourself!" he shouted in the direction of the forest.

In a slow pace a girl approached the two kiri-nins.

"You're one of Hatake Kakashi's brats." the nuke-nin stated.

Minari put on a warm smile.

"Hi."

* * *

Ohhh, Minari's with the evil ninjas! What was it again about clever enough to avoid trouble Kakashi? Okay, it wasn't this suprising… But what'll happen next you won't see coming! Mwahahahahahahaha*cough*hahaha… uh yeah…

And again after watching the anime for the sake of this chapter I realised why I prefer the manga. The anime could be so great (expect for the fillers… Stupid fillers!) if the German version wouldn't have gotten castrated so much that in some parts it didn't even make sense anymore! An anime full of blood, death and what do I know what else isn't suit for little kids, that normally watch pokemon and spongebob, so they shouldn't try to make this anime suitable! The worst scene is where in the original Zabuza kills Gatou (sooooooo cool!), but in the edited version they completely left it out and just said "Oh my, he has gotten away." Grr… stupid film editor people…

Okay change of subject before I go and kill off those film castrators…

This chapter got a little short, but if I hadn't left out the fighting parts it's just be boring so better short than boring, ne? But the next chapter will be longer, I promise.^^

Should I give you some preview again? Hmmmmh…

Preview: _Old friend, old memories_

You finally get to know something about Minari's past and Minari gets to shoot another nice picture for her collection, so look forward to it!


	11. Old friend, old memories

Hey there! I'm ill so I got some spare time to write this chapter! Ha!

Thanks to Mirani, Jestie Uchiha, MikaHimura and some random chika (thanks for pointing it out, fixed it right away^^) for your lovely reviews, you're awesome! And thanks to all the cool people who read this story! I love you all!

Study trip last week! Was fun but I'm somehow relieved that it's over now.

Anyhow, here's chapter 11 just for you guys! Enjoy!

* * *

**Sins and Sunshine**

Chapter 11: Old friend, old memories

"Who are you?" Zabuza asked me hostilely.

"Wait. Aren't you…" Haku shouted.

"Haku-kun!" I yelled happily.

"Minari-chan!"

"You know her, Haku?"

"Yeah, she's an old friend of mine." Haku explained and then turned to me.

"What are you doing here, Minari-chan?"

I smiled sheepishly.

"Well, first I wanted to spy on you but this issue has been settled after I recognized you."

"How have you been? You found a place where you could live in peace?"

"Yep. Currently I'm living in Konoha and I even found some friends." I announced proudly, "And as it seems you, too, found someone who needs you."

"Wait a sec! Could you explain to me what's this all about?" Zabuza interrupted our happy reunion, visibly irritated by the fact that he was the only one who didn't know what was going on.

"Oh that's a long story." Haku said and then started narrating.

* * *

_Flashback _

_7 years ago somewhere in the water country…_

_A little boy was running bare feet through the fresh snow. Traversing a snow-covered field he was desperately looking for a place to stay and hide but around him was nothing but trees and the white powder that covered the world with its icy silence and restricted his sight to a few meters. They killed his mother and then tried to do the same to him. They would have succeeded if he hadn't killed them with his Kekkei Genkai first. Since days he was running through this forest now without rest in the fear they could catch him otherwise. Not knowing what drove him so much to survive he fought against the hunger and fatigue and ignored the stinging pain of the cold and the urge to sink to the floor and sleep. He was alone now. He had no one who cared for him or needed him. So why was he struggling so much? Wasn't it so much easier to just die like they all wanted? _

_Slowly he could make out something from the grey in front of him. As he came nearer the silhouette became clearer. It was the wall of a village. His steps became slower until he came to a halt. Starring at the grey sky he sank down on his knees, his sight getting blurry before he finally collapsed in the snow. Lying there he knew this was it. He hadn't any strength left to stand up._

"_Hey, you. If you sleep here, you'll freeze to death, you know?" a soft childish voice said._

_Slowly opening his tired eyes he stared in clear hazelnut-colored ones. There was a __skinny little girl, only one or two years younger than him, crouching in front of him. She wore a shabby kimono and her tousled light-brown hair fell over her shoulders while the snow got caught in her strands and eyelashes. When she noticed his gaze on her she started smiling, fished an old chunk of bread out of her small backpack and handed it to him. She kept smiling as she watched the boy gulping down the stale bread._

"_By the way, my name is Minari. And you are?"_

"_Haku." The boy answered smiling at the girl who just now saved his life._

* * *

_Three weeks passed and the two kids became good friends and as beggars and pickpockets they fought everyday for their survival. Happy with the loot from today – 2 loafs of bread and even a__ few slices of beef jerky – they lay on their makeshift bed made of straw and linen in their little hideout, vacant storage shed they discovered while strolling through the small alleys of the village. Chewing on the last two beef stripes they lay side by side staring at the ceiling of the shed. It was made of corrugated iron and rust created little holes, but the permanent snow blanket, that covered every house in this village, acted as isolation so they didn't waste a second thought about them. _

"_Say, Minari-chan." Haku said, rolling around so he could face the girl, "You told me you're from Suna. So why are you here so far away from you home?"_

_She looked at him then closed her eyes and wore her usual smile._

"_Precisely because it's so far away."_

"_What do you mean by that?"_

_The girl also turned around so she could look him in the eyes._

"_I told you that I lost my parents, right? They died because of me. If I stayed, I would've been killed as well, so I had to flee. The Land of Water is far away from the wind country and relatively remote from the continent, so this'd be the last place to search for a little girl like me."_

_Haku looked at her with a slightly shocked expression._

"_How long have you been on the run now?"_

"_About one year, I guess."_

"_Why have you been chased?"_

"…" _Minari didn't know what to answer here. It's not that she didn't know, she just didn't want to tell. Haku realized this and started to tell his own story instead._

"_They wanted to kill me because of my Kekkei Genkai. I could flee but they killed my mother. I don't think they are hunting me anymore so I'm just trying to survive."_

"_What is it you keep living for so desperately?" she asked looking at the boy with her big innocent eyes._

"_I hope to someday find a person whom I can be of use and give my life for."_

"_That's a nice goal." Minari stated with a warm smile. Haku sat up and replied the smile._

"_You also have a goal to live for?"_

"_Yeah, I have." the girl answered mimicking her friend._

"_I'm looking for a new home to stay, where I can live in peace. And someday when I'm strong enough I'll return to Suna and make good on a promise I made to a very special person."_

_In this night the two orphans made a vow to give it their all to fulfil their dreams._

_Two years later Minari continued her journey. She wanted to return to the continent to carry on her search. Another reason was that she was fed up with all the coldness and the fog and was now looking for a sunnier place to stay. Admittedly it wasn't easy for them to bid farewell, but they both knew that this had to happen some day, just the way they both knew that this goodbye wasn't forever._

_Another three months later Haku met Zabuza who took him in. Meanwhile Minari was aimlessly wandering through the Land of Lightning._

_ End of flashback…_

* * *

"…And after she departed I met you, Zabuza-san." Haku finished the abridgement of our story. Sweet, sweet memories.

"So your little friend here won't make us any trouble?" Zabuza asked warily.

"Nope." I assured him with a broad grin "As long as you're Haku's friend you have nothing to fear from me."

"Master." Zabuza corrected me.

"What?"

"I'm his master, not his friend."

"Whatever."

"What are you going to do now?" Haku asked me.

"Dunno. Maybe hang out with you guys."

"No." Zabuza decided without the shortest hesitation.

"Why not?" Haku and I asked in unison.

"Because I say so."

We began giving him puppy dog eyes.

"…"  
*stare*

"…"

*harder stare*

"…"

*ultimate heart-wrenching stare*

"…Okay, she can stay." the nuke-nin admitted his defeat and Haku and I gave us a hug and made the V-sign behind his back as if there was a camera or something like that.

* * *

Zabuza's hideout…

"But I don't want to rest." Zabuza complained right after we arrived at his hideout (some strange housing in the midst of the forest) because Haku confined him to bed.

He was lying in a fluffy bed while Haku and I were standing next to him. I also want a fluffy bed!

"Should I read you a bedtime story so you can better fall asleep?" I teased the fully grown evil shinobi.

"Should I chop off your head so you finally keep you trap shut?" he retorted.

"No can do. Your knive-sword-thingy is on the other side of the room and Haku won't let you out of the bed."

"I don't need my sword. A normal kunai is more than enough for you."

"You know that injured people should play with pointy things?"

Unfortunately Haku interrupted our profound discussion.

"Gatou's about to come in. Minari-chan, you should better go and hide somewhere."

"Why?"

"Because it doesn't make a good impression if the enemy is with us."

That did make sense, so I hastily looked for a suitable place to hide. Too bad that this room was completely empty expect for the giant bed, the sword and a small commode it was leaning against. Oh, well.

I jumped on the other side of the bed and slip under the blanket using Zauba's massive body frame as a visual cover.

"What the fuck are you doing, brat?" he complained.

"I'm also not very keen on sharing a bed with you but unfortunately that's the only hiding spot in this room." I shot back and hid under the blankets so that I couldn't be seen from the door side. Wow, wait a sec. If they would really spot me, what would they think? Something like 'Omg, Zabuza is a lolicon'? Ugh! Bad thoughts, need diversion!

Luckily this diversion came, unluckily in form of Gatou. And the worst is he didn't even knock before entering! No manners, tzz, tzz.

"So even you came back defeated. It looks like the mist village ninjas are pretty pathetic." the short man sneered. Zabuza tensed what I, of course, noticed right away, because I was lying next to him.

I heard someone coming closer to the bed. I guess it was Gatou. I wasn't really able to tell by just the sound of the steps, I was hiding after all.

Then he reached out a hand and demanded an answer from the mist-nin. This was easy to tell, because I heard Haku moving, Gatou painfully groaning and Haku warning him to keep his filthy hands off of Zabuza.

After that were the sounds of swords being drawn. It seems like Gatou brought some bodyguards with him. Okay, that was somehow obvious. However Haku somehow stopped them and sounded really angry. I got goosebumps even in this warm and fluffy bed!

Finally the gatecrashers scrammed and I stuck my head out from under the sheet.

"I really can't see why you're working for this bossy jerk. I'd really like to make this poison dwarf a few heads shorter." I said completely irritated.

"I intended to do that." Zabuza replied revealing the kunai he hid under the blanket. Remind me, the next I jump into the of someone else to first check if he or she isn't armed.

"It's too early to kill him. He's still out best cover. If we cause a commotion, they'll be after us again." Haku explained.

"And why are you working for him again, if you also can't stand him?" I asked again.

"Because we need the money." Zabuza said.

"And why do you need it?"

"To finance the next coup against the Mizukage to stop his reign of terror. And now shut up!"

A grin spread across my face.

"Awww. So the demon still clings to his village!"

"Tsk." was his answer. That somehow reminded me of Sasuke. Aw, I really miss my team.

I rolled around so that my back faced Zabuza and pulled the blanket up to my chin. I wonder what they were doing right now. I doubt that they're still looking for me. Maybe Kakashi-sensei teaches them some new ninja techniques right now?

"Hey, why are you still lying in my bed?" Zabuza asked glaring at me with his lack-of-eyebrows-ness.

"But it's so soft and fluffy." I said and made puppy dog eyes.

"That doesn't work."

My eyes wandered to Haku pleading him for help, but the boy was too busy to try not to burst into laughter.

"Out." the nuke-nin threatened.

"But-"

"Out!"

"But I don't wanna!" I kept whining. He sightened and turned his back towards me.

"Do what you want." Yay! Won!

Then even Haku slipped into the bed, because he felt a bit excluded as the only one standing around. Good that this was a really big bed.

The next morning it looked like this:

I was rolled up on the edge of the bed hugging the only pillow and a tip of the blanket. Haku used Zabuza's chest as a pillow because of the lack of comfortable enough things to rest one head on. That's why Zabuza rested his head on his arm while he had the other one draped around Haku for some unknown reason.

While creepily starring at the two cuddling ninjas I magically pulled out my camera of thin air (actually of a pocket similar to the ones where you store your weapons, but oh well) and took a nice picture of this cute scene. Zabuza will kill me for sure, if he ever gets wind of this picture!

* * *

And another chapter done. One part of Minari's past revealed, but there's still more (a lot more) so look forward to it! In this flashback mode I tried to change my style a bit, like more describing and all. I'm afraid I turn out pretty cheesy… Well, blame the novel 'the farseer' that I'm reading right now. Just have to love it. But too difficult to copy the writing style… Whatever.

Just saw that only a few more chapters are left before Gaara finally makes his entrance. Yaaay! Okay that was all from my side, so good night, I'm really tired now!


	12. At home by friends

Hey there again! First a huge thanks to Jestie Uchiha for your review! Second, well… there's not much to say this time, so just enjoy chapter 12! 

* * *

**Sins and Sunshine**

Chapter 12: At home by f(r)iends

The sun slowly rose, the first rays of light heated the ground and the dew on the leaves refracted the light.

"Hawwww." I sighted completely bored. Such a beautiful morning. It would be a shame if on a day like this one would not go outside and make a stroll through the forest, especially on one of those few days when there's actually no mist concealing the sun.

"What is it now?" a really irritated Zabuza asked from inside the room where I was right now starring out of the window.

"Why can't I go out? It's such a beautiful morning." I whined.

"Because you could reveal our location or do something stupid if you just ran off."

"And why couldn't I accompany Haku when he went out to collect herbs?"

"Because I want to keep an eye on you. I still don't trust you."

"Aww, don't tell me you'd miss me." I joked.

"If you weren't Haku's friend, I would've killed you long ago." he murmured to himself.

Some might think it's a bad idea to piss of a dangerous wanted criminal, but believe me, if you were as bored as I am right now, you'd do everything to kill some time. But I always annoy him. Does that mean I'm always bored? Maybe I just have a strange hobby. Who knows…

"Could I go outside if you came with me?" I persisted.

"Why should I do that?"

"So I would shut up and stop annoying you?"

"You'd still do that."

"How did you know that?" I exaggeratedly backed away and pun on a shocked expression. Unfortunately the nuke-nin didn't respond to my little act. I pouted then thought about what I could do until Haku came back. But the only thing that came to my mind that didn't get me beheaded, raped, shredded to pieces or killed was cooking. This way I was occupied for about an hour and on top of it I could get something to eat. Yay, food!

"Hey, Zabuza, can you tell me the way to the kitchen?"

"What do you want there?"

"Blow it up, what else? Forget it I look for it myself." I rolled my eyes and hurried to leave the room to escape his angry glare. Right after I closed the door behind me I could hear something heavy hitting the door. As I looked to the left, I saw part of a blade sticking out of the wooden door. Seems like someone has a aggression problem.

It was surprisingly easy to find the kitchen. I just had to open every door I came across, what took some time 'cause this building has quite a number of doors and behind some of them I found really disturbing things that I won't mention here for the sake of the mental health of the readers.

Anyway I found the kitchen and was surprised of how clean it was. There was a thin layer of dust on the countertops but apart from that it was tidy and easy to overview.

After cleaning I got the ingredients for pancakes from the fridge, that wasn't even as empty as I first thought. I guess this was Haku's influence. I doubt that Zabuza would care about a clean kitchen and balanced nutrition.

20 minutes later the air was filled with the pleasant smell of home-made pancakes. I put them on a plate on the dining table that stood in a corner of the room and used up the remaining batter before I could finally start eating.

Just as I poured the batter into the pan Zabuza came in. He took a plate, put a pile of pancakes on it (my pancakes, mind you!) and began to eat.

"Hey, I made them for myself. Make your own pancakes!" I complained.

"You should be happy that you even get anything to eat." he said and continued eating.

"Pff." I wanted to retort something but the pancake almost got burned so I had to direct my attention toward the stove.

"Why does it smell so good here?" Haku asked as he entered the kitchen and put down the basket with the herbs next to the door.

"Hey, Haku-kun. I made pancakes. Want some?"

"Yes, please." he said and I put two plates full pancakes on the table before we sat down and also began to eat.

"Wait. Why are you sharing with him but didn't want to give me any?" Zabuza complained. Why that hit him so hard I'm not so sure of it myself.

"Because he's my friend and doesn't throw pointy things at me. And he asked."

"No, he didn't."

"But he would've."

"Tsk."

"Pff."

"…"

"By the way, Minari-chan. In the forest I met a blond boy who wore a forehead protector with the konoha-emblem on it. You know him?" Haku asked.

"You mean Naruto. He's a friend and in my team. How is he doing?" I asked while getting my second serving of food.

"Fine, I guess. It looked like he was training all night long."

"Wow, Kakashi-sensei actually teaches us something. Or better the others, I'm not there as one can see." I said to no one in particular. I want to train, too. Why is it, that all we do is doing stupid missions and getting lectured if I'm there?

"Didn't Kakashi train you before?" Zabuza asked suddenly interested.

"Not really. All he did was lecturing us or explaining things. But I never listened because either I didn't care or I already knew." I mean, seriously, who cares Kakashi's jabbering?

* * *

After dinner used Haku the herbs to make medicine and ointments which he then used to treat Zabuza's wounds. After that he changed all his bandages. Only now I noticed how severely injured Zabuza actually was. I mean, practically his whole body was bandaged!

"You look like a mummy." I commented while watching Haku treating the nuke-nin.

"Another word and you'll look the same." Zabuza growled. Okay, I should be careful with my next words or better just shut up.

"Omigod! The mummy's alive!" I thought. Oh shit, did I actually say that out loud?

"Just you wait, you little…!" Yep, I did…

Zabuza jumped up, ready to rip me into pieces, but Haku held him back. Yay, I can keep on living!

"Wait, Zabuza-san, I'm not finished yet." he said calmly.

"And Minari-chan, please try not to provoke Zabuza-san so much, otherwise he'll really kill you."

"Okay, Haku-kun, if you say so." I replied happily and saluted.

"Some day… some day…" the kiri-nin kept murmuring what frightened the hell out of me, so I made a run for it.

* * *

Meanwhile somewhere in the forest…

"Damn it!" Naruto cursed after falling off the tree he was trying to climb for the nth time and landing on his face.

The boy sat there and starred at the tree as if this would help to climb it. Sasuke, too, lost his grip but unlike Naruto landed gracefully on the ground.

"You know what I'm thinking right now?" Naruto asked him.

"Hn?" the other answered without any interest.

"I wonder how Minari would cope with this training."

"Hmh." Now Sasuke also started wondering.

Since yesterday they didn't hear anything from their teammate, so they were worried if something might have happened to her. Even Sakura was worried about her – when she wasn't too busy being happy about now having Sasuke all for herself.

Kakashi-sensei would often search for her but without success. When she returns he would lecture her about how bad it is to randomly disappear without saying anything. In this moment Minari had a premonition that something horrible would happen to her, but couldn't explain where the feeling came from and so kept annoying the nuke-nin.

Poor Minari can't even guess what torture awaits her when she returns to her team and Kakashi could finally give her a lecture that gets longer every minute that passes.

* * *

Few days later at Zabuza's hideout…

Zabuza has recovered very fast from his injuries and was now completely back to normal – much to my chagrin. Because now I couldn't piss him off anymore without having to run for my life every time. Which didn't stop me from doing it nonetheless.

The good thing is, all this running for my life made me faster and my stamina got better. Who would have thought that playing with one's own life was such effective training?

Moreover did the nuke-nin finally allow me to go outside without anyone monitoring me. Of course I grabbed the opportunity straight away and ran off before he'd change his mind. Now with my newly regained freedom I went and looked for Gatou to spy on him. In my opinion he's the real enemy and not Haku and Zabuza, so if could somehow stop him, he would have to fight the two anymore, right?

It wasn't even that difficult to find his hideout. I was a huge estate in the midst of the forest with view onto the sea and a giant protective wall surrounding it, that not even someone like me could overlook.

In front of the wall were many bandits and thugs assembled and I wondered what business they had there. So I waited and waited and waited and finally the giant elegantly ornamented gate in the wall opened and Gatou stepped out with some bodyguards to announce his evil plan to the thugs.

_Interesting… I have to warn the others!_

I rushed back to Zazuba's hideout.

"Zabuza! Haku-kun!" I shouted as I stormed in but all that followed was silence. I concentrated to feel any trace of chakra in the building. But again there was nothing. Where the hell were they?

An uneasy feeling overcame me. So he had his reasons why he'd let me stroll around on my own today. They wanted me out of the way, or at least busy for some time. But that would mean they are-

"I must hurry!" I rushed out of the building and set off to the bridge to stop them from whatever they were going to do.

Uhm… How do I get to the bridge again? 

* * *

Okay, this was chapter 12, hope you enjoyed it. Next chapter is the last one of this arc. I have to admit I'm a bit happy about it.

And the most important thing in the next chapter: Will Zabuza and Haku survive? The answer is: wait and see! Mwahaha I'm evil!


	13. Mission successful

Hey there! And again a chapter, yay! Thanks to Jestie Uchiha for reviewing!

If you're interested: I put a picture of Minari on my profile. It's her before and after the timeskip.

OMG! Just found out something HORRIBLE! Instead of the 8th chapter I uploaded the 6th chapter again! Noooo! Gosh, why am I so stupid? Well fixed that now. Sorry for confusing you all! Oh and while rereading the previous chapters I found so many mistakes, wants me to bang my head against something hard. I really suck... Too lazy to fix 'em thought...

Nothing else to say, so just enjoy this chapter, the last one of this arc^^

* * *

**Sins and Sunshine**

Chapter 13: Mission successful

For hours now was I running around in this forest and couldn't find anything but trees, water and trees. Then finally I reached the riverside where I could already see the half-finished bridge. It was encased in abnormally thick fog, not the normal one that I find here every so often but the jutsu-type one. That meant that the battle was still ongoing and neither Zabuza nor Kakashi were dead yet – Zabuza because it was his jutsu and Kakashi because he was the only one who could take him on. I took that as a good sign, but I still had to hurry.

On the bridge I saw Zabuza being held/bitten on by a full dozen of dogs. In front of him was Kakashi who had strange blue sparkling chakra gathered in his hand and wanted to tear a hole into Zabuza's chest with this. Haku appeared in front of his master to act as a meat shield. In horror I watched as my dear friend was about to meet an early end and stormed forward.

"Stoooop!" Screaming I was tackling Kakashi to the side. He got distracted and his blue lighting jutsu got dissolved, same goes for the dogs.

"Minari?" he uttered in surprise.

"Minari." the two nuke-nins said also startled to see me here.

"Minari? Where?" I could hear Naruto and Sakura shouting from somewhere in the fog.

"What are you doing?" my sensei confronted me.

"Stop this fight! You're no longer enemies!" I shouted but only met unbelieving stares.

"Minari-chan. You know why we have to do this-" Haku began but was interrupted by I.

"I know, but that's the point. Gatou no longer needs you and has sent his little army of thugs to come here and kill everyone in sight!"

"That little…!" Zabuza growled clenching his fists until his knuckles turned white.

"Minari, explain. Why do know this and where have you been?" Kakashi-sensei questioned me, a stern look on his face. Naruto, Sakua and Tazuna came running towards us stopping behind Kakashi. I smiled nervously and scratched the back of my head.

"Well, it's like this. First I followed Zabuza to spy on them. Then I found out that Haku was actually an old friend of mine, but that's a complete different story. The point is that I found Gatou's house and overheard him while explaining his plan to his henchmen. We don't have much time left, so please stop this pointless fight!" I looked pleadingly at Kakashi, hoping that he'd understand. He was silent for a moment, thinking, and then faced the kiri-nin.

"It may be that for this mission it is no longer necessary to fight against you, but you're still nuke-nins and it's our duty as Konoha's shinobi to dispose of you."

"But, why?" I sreamed. Zabuza chuckled bitter.

"Duty, that's right."

"And what if you pretend that you have killed us? We promise to never cause any trouble again and you won't hear any word from us in the future." Haku suggested. My eyes lit up and again I gave my sensei a pleading look and now even Naruto began to persuade him not to kill them. Finally he nodded and gave in.

"I guess we can accept that."

Happily I hugged first Kakashi and then Haku, then I noticed that something was not right.

"Where's Sasuke?"

Naruto became gloomy and saw backwards. I followed his gaze and saw a bundle of dark blue clothing motionlessly lying on the ground, senbon sticking out everywhere. Thank goodness the fog disappeared otherwise I wouldn't have seen anything but, well, fog.

Shocked from this Sakura was running towards her beloved, the bridge builder following her because it was her task to protect him. Then she kneeled down beside Sasuke's unmoving body and started crying. Err, but why wasn't she helping him? Didn't she see that he's still alive? How about feeling his pulse? Seriously, fangirls.

I rolled my eyes and turned back to the problem the others kept discussing.

"Oh look, bandits." I stated and pointed in the direction where I saw them. The others cut off their discussion about how to fake their death to follow my gaze. When I said 'little army' I didn't exaggerate, there were really many of them.

"That would solve the problem." Zabuza stated, grinning maniacally. He then grabbed a kunai, pushed forward, slashed some bandits, skewered Gatou and jumped together with him into the water.

"Use Zabuza-sama's sword as proof that you really killed us." Haku said smiling.

"And it was nice to see you again, Minari-chan."

"Bye, Haku-kun." I said waving him as he disappeared. Feeling sad I stared at the spot where my friend stood just seconds ago. Saying farewell is never easy.

"And what do we do with all those bandits?" Naruto asked and directed my attention back towards the event at hand. The thugs, now without a money source, wanted to rob the village, but then all the villagers appeared and proclaimed that they wouldn't let this happen. Then Naruto and Kakashi-sensei made an army of shadow clones and the bandits got frightened and ran away. Okay, they jumped into the water so they swam away.

Everyone was cheering and happy that it all was over now. There was just one problem: Sasuke.

I went over to Pinky, still lying on Sasuke's chest and crying. I grabbed her shoulder and pulled her off him.

"Hey, what are you doing? Let me go!" Pinky protested. Ignoring her I looked at the boy in front of me.

"Better?"

"Much better." he said panting and took a deep breath, finally free from the heavy weight on his lungs.

"Sasuke! You're alive!" Sakura shouted crying out of happiness and flung her arm around his neck, which brought him only more pain. Beware of the pink danger.

* * *

Few days later…

"Is it okay so?" I asked Kakashi-sensei.

"Perfect." he answered. "Just like a real grave."

Right now our team was at a hill, preparing the graves for Zabuza and Haku to let it seem more realistic. No one knows about this fraud except us and Tazuna, but he promised us not to tell anyone.

Sasuke had quickly recovered from his injuries. They weren't as bad as we thought at first. Haku was truly too nice. Somehow Naruto and Sasuke became good friend while I was away. Did I miss something?

By the way, they finally finished the construction of the bridge. This way we could cross the water without having to take a boat which could again bring me into the danger of falling over board.

All the villagers came to see us off and tell their thanks. Naruto talked with some kid and both started crying like little babies, but without showing it to the other. Tzz, boys and their pride. So after their crying session we could finally get going towards the sunny Konoha. Yay, good bye, fog, I definitely won't miss you! Ha!

"Ne, Minari-chan. Look, what Kakashi-sensei learned us!" Naruto said, then run towards a tree and climbed it without using His hands. Wow. He learned to control his chakra, just like a ninja…

"Cool, ne?" he said grinning, proud of his achievement.

"Uhh, nice, Naruto." I replied slightly confused. I mean, isn't that basic skill for every ninja or did I miss again something?

"You don't like it?" he said looking sadly at me with watering puppy dog eyes. Aww, cute!

"Yes, I do. But I thought you learned something more amazing like a cool jutsu or something." I admitted.

"Well, at least we learned something unlike you!" Pinky snapped at me.

"Who said I didn't learn anything?" (I really did! I learned how to piss off dangerous criminals without getting chopped to pieces afterwards! And my stamina went up, too!)

That answer left her dumbfounded and Kakashi-sensei gave me an amazed look.

"I would never have thought, that Zabuza would actually teach you something."

"Neither did he." I answered grinning and left him with completely confused. I love messing with other peoples' minds!

"Oh, and Minari." Kakashi said.

"Yeah?"

"I still have to lecture you, that it's not good to leave without a word."

"Nooooooo!" I screamed and ran for my life.

* * *

At the Hokage's office…

"So that's what happened." the Hokage mused after hearing our story from Kakashi-sensei.

"But what's wrong with Minari-chan?" With this he looked at the picture of misery that was actually me. Wax-pale and with a blank stare I stood there, supported by Naruto and Sasuke standing on both sides of me. Four whole hours of Kakashi's lectures that would even break the strongest of all shinobi. Kakashi missed his vocation. He should have become a specialist for interrogation and torture!

"She got lectured by Kakashi-sensei." Naruto obligingly explained to the Hokage.

"There, there, Minari-chan. It couldn't actually have been this bad."

I shot him a death glare.

"That's what YOU think!"

* * *

Yay, another chapter complete! And yay, Haku and Zabuza are not dead!

I played with the thought that I could update more often from time to time, after realising that I have enough prewritten chapters for the whole year… Well let's see what life brings!

Now, for all the Gaara-fans out there (including me)! The moment you all waited for has come! Gaara's first appearance! Yaaaay! Err, yeah… So look forward to the next chapter^^


	14. Unexpected Reunion

Hey there! First, thanks and cookies to Jestie Uchiha, MyLifeInWhole and jade for reviewing!

Secondly, I actually wanted to update this chapter last week but then my computer died. I don't know why but from one day to the other he was suddenly dead… Well, now he's alive again and… omg does that mean my computer is a zombie? Okay what I wanted to say is that now the next update will be next week. That's mostly because this chapter will end (again) with a cliffhanger and I don't want to have to guys to wait two whole weeks. One week okay but not two.

Thirdly: Kagami, Kagami, watashi no~ lalalalaaaaa~~ sweet song, just have to love it!^^

Okay, whatever. Now I'll just shut up and let you read this chapter!

* * *

**Sins and Sunshine**

Chapter 14: Unexpected Reunion

"And I then 'Gatsuga!' and he then 'Oh no, forgive me!' and then I and Akamaru kicked his ass and he then…" Kiba told us from his team's first C-rank-mission.

Our old clique, consisting of Naruto, Kiba, Choji, Shikamaru, Shino, Hinata and lil ol' me, decided to meet up at our regular café a few days after our team came back from the Land of Waves. Sasuke didn't want to come, he said he had better things to do. Sakura and Ino didn't come simply because we didn't invite them.

Right now we were exchanging stories of our missions and what we did do all the time we couldn't see each other. And of course Kiba totally exaggerated with his little story. Hinata told me that at the beginning he was so nervous he couldn't even walk straight without tripping over his own feet. But nonetheless we let him talk and then had Shino tell us the truth. Then Kiba got in a fight with Shino who won by using his scary close-up face.

"Our mission was really difficult, believe it!" Naruto then began.

"Originally we should only have escorted this old man to the Land of Waves but then those ninjas attacked us but we easily finished them off. Then…"

It was really cute listening to his enthusiastic speech, even thought half of it was completely made up, for example when he single-handedly beat up three enemies at once or when he saved Sasuke.

"Who saved whom, dope?" Sasuke said while entering the café.

"What are you doing here, teme? Thought you didn't want to come?" Naruto shot back. Aww and few days ago they were such good friends, pity.

"I didn't want to but Kakashi told me to look for you guys. We has to tell us something."

"What is it?" I asked him curious of what our sensei had to say, but Sasuke only shrugged being indifferent like always.

"Well, sorry guys but we have to go." I waved goodbye to my friends as I left the shop pulling Naruto behind me.

"Maybe we can meet some other day."

* * *

Our whole team waited on a bridge for Kakashi to finally show up. And we waited, and waited, and waited…

"Now where's our oh-so reliable sensei?" I asked no one in particular after two hours of pointless standing around and waiting.

"Hey guys!" Kakashi-sensei greeted as he magically appeared on the bridge. Well magically or ninja-like, depending on how you look at it…

"Sorry I'm late, I'm afraid I got lost on the path of life." was his all-explaining excuse. I had to postpone my friends so that I could wait with my team two whole hours just to hear this lame excuse. Sometimes I wonder why I actually always wait for Kakashi to show up instead of going home and sleep. Then I remember him being our sensei and all. Sometimes life is playing really mean tricks on me…

"So what's up?" I asked him silently cursing my bad luck in life.

"We have new missions!" he announced happily. Naruto started again that he wanted some really difficult ones then starred at Sasuke and had flames in his eyes. He probably thought about saving Sasuke so he'd be the cool one this time. Poor little Naruto, being so predictable.

Our first "mission" was weeding the garden of an old lady. But Naruto didn't just pull up weed but actually all plants in this garden which brought him a black eye by the herb woman.

Next we had to collect trash from the river. Then Naruto slipped and almost fell off the waterfall if it wasn't for Sasuke saving him. Irony…

Then we had to walk dogs and Naruto wanted by all means the biggest one. But this dog dragged him into a restricted area where they had to blow up something. How Naruto could actually survive that and the dog didn't get hurt, we'll never know.

On the way to retrieve our next so-called "mission" Sasuke and I had to carry the blown up Naruto. When Pinky and Sasuke (!) started mocking him because of that he snapped and accused Sasuke of thinking of himself as better than anyone else.

"Not better than anyone else." he retorted "only better than you."

He then provoked the blonde a bit more until they were on the brink of fighting.

Pinky was frightened, I was bored. That's not the first time and won't be the last time that those two fight, so why bother?

Then Kakashi gave us the rest of the day off to stop the quarrelling couple – or to not have to bear with the consequences of it. Yep, that's more like Kakashi. But who cares. Yay, sweet leisure time!

"And, Minari." sensei turned to me.

"Come with me. We have to talk."

So long, sweet leisure time…

Kakashi made his disappearing-trick but this time with me disappearing along with him.

We were a few streets away from the others and now I felt dizzy. Why couldn't he just talk to me where the others were? It couldn't actually be something important. I mean, it's Kakashi we're talking about!

"You probably know that soon the Chunin exams will take place here in Konoha?"

"Yeah?" I answered/questioned. The others told me about that but I didn't see his point there.

"Then you probably also know that only teams of three can participate?"

"You're going to kick Pinky out of the team?" I asked him hopefully.

"No."

"So you gonna kick me out of the team?" I then said sadly, really sadly.

"Not directly 'kicking out'."

"Then what?"

"From tomorrow on until the Chunin exams are over you're transferred to another team who lack one person."

"Why do they lack one person?"

"He ran away for some unknown reason."

"U~hu~…" I hummed guessing why he would have probably run away. And I didn't like my guesses one bit.

"So why is it me and not Pinky?" I persisted. Seriously I don't want to leave my team. We're so good friends, I simply don't want to!

"Because I think it's easier for you to integrate in a new team than anyone of the others."

"And why-"

"You're meeting your new team tomorrow on the third training ground at noon. Try to get along with them." Kakashi then explained and disappeared again before I could ask him any more questions. Instead I now stood there all alone and pouting.

Stupid Kakashi, kicking me out of the team. Stupid rules only allowing teams of three…

Still pouting I strolled along the street not really paying attention as to where I was going.

A new team, huh? I was really sad that I had to leave my friends and just as we started to act like a real team. And now I get thrown into some strange new squad with strange new people that scared away their previous team member. Why would Kakashi think that I of all people would be able to befriend which such guys?

And how do I tell this my old team?

Okay Pinky will be thrilled to bits that I'm finally out of her way but Naruto will surely be lonely without me, with the others picking on him and all. Would Sasuke be disappointed? Naah, he's an Uchiha. It's impossible he'd actually miss me, except for the fact that I then can no longer protect him from the pink danger.

_It'd be best I tell them now_, I thought then stopped to orientate me. It's good that Kakashi didn't teleport me too far away. Easily I found the way back to the street I left the others but obviously they were no longer there.

I kept looking for them and wandered through various small alleys and the one I was currently following lead to a bigger street.

There I could actually see all three of my team colleagues, together with three little kids. They appeared to talk to someone but the edge of a building was blocking my view. Not that it mattered much to me. I just cursed that Pinky was with them. Now I had to see her sardonic grin when I told them the sad news.

Nonetheless I crossed the broad street and went directly to my friend plus Pinky and kids.

"Hey guys. I have to tell you something."

"Oh, hey Minari." Naruto greeted me. It's not like we just saw each other about one hour ago. No, he just had to greet me.

"Minari?" I turned to see the person who just now said my name and froze in my movement. No. Could it be?

In front of me stood three suna-nins and actually three certain suna-nins that I knew just too well.

The blond girl with four ponytails and the boy with makeup and black playsuit starred at me completely shocked. But I ignored them. All my attention was on the boy with the red hair and cyan eyes.

"Minari." he breathed my name, disbelieve in his black-rimmed eyes.

I felt something hot and wet rolling down my cheek as I starred at the redhead. All the memories that I had suppressed for so many years finally came back up to the surface. With a bittersweet smile forming on my lips I whispered the only words that my mind would come up with in this moment.

"Hello, Gaara."

* * *

Woot! Gaara's appearance, finally! Sorry that he only came at the very end but isn't that like really dramatic and all? And like I already said/wrote next week you get the next chapter! :D

If you still think there wasn't enough Gaara in this story, let me tell you that soon there'll be more than enough sweet Gaara and Minari scenes. Apart from that I'll just go and hide somewhere^^


	15. Old memories

Hey there! Like promised the next chapter right on time! Thanks to distantdreamer104, MyLifeInWhole and Jestie Uchiha for your reviews!

Let me tell you beforehand, I pretty much messed up with this chapter. Sorry 'bout this.

About the creepy voice: No, Minari won't get invincible nor will she get super strong. This voice is only here to annoy her and somewhat important for the plot!

That said I'll shut up and let you enjoy this chapter (hopefully)!

* * *

**Sins and Sunshine**

Chapter 15: Old memories

"Hello, Gaara." I greeted the boy in front of me with a smile while fighting the tears that just kept rolling down my cheeks.

The redhead didn't reply anything just stared at me with wide eyes while the rest of his features remained emotionless.

"What are you doing here?" I heard Temari's voice that sounded for me like she was very far away.

"Weren't you supposed to be dead?" Kankuro's voice joined hers.

"You know them?" Pinky asked and some other voices from little kids joined the others.

But it didn't matter. I didn't care for all the voices as they all sounded so distant. All that mattered at the moment was the boy in front of me and the inner fight I had with my mind as all the long forgotten memories came back to me. My whole past rushed back into my consciousness and washed away everything else like a big destructive wave until not even those cool cyan eyes could reach my mind anymore. Instead pictures kept rushing through my vision and voices echoed in my ears. And from the deepest depths of my subconsciousness I could feel an overwhelming darkness crawling up to the surface and a dark threatening voice began whispering sweetly in my head.

**Hello, Minari. Did you miss me?**

"Minari-chan!" Naruto's scream echoed through my head as my mind grew heavy and the darkness took away the last bit consciousness that was left in me.

* * *

Outside POV…

Her vision went blank as the girl's knees gave in and she fell forward. But before she hit the hard ground Sasuke caught her and picked her up bridal style. Then he glared at the three suna-nins, who stood there wondering what happened just now.

"What did you do to her?" he asked with a dark threatening voice.

"W-We didn't do anything." Temari stumbled waving her hands like saying "It wasn't us so don't glare at us like that".

"What did you mean with her being supposed to be dead?" Naruto growled his pupils turning into slits.

"That, we just thought that she was dead." Kankuro explained getting nervous.

"That's enough." Gaara interrupted him with a cold voice than turned around. "We're leaving."

As his siblings hesitated for a moment he gave them a murderous glare and they followed him straight away afraid of being killed otherwise. Then they were gone in a swirl of sand.

"W-We should take her to the hospital." Sakura suggested a shiver running down her spine from the mere presence of the two furious boys.

* * *

_Flashback…_

_9 years ago in Sunagakure…_

_On a playground a__ little boy sat on a swing. His short red hair swayed in the cool evening breeze as his sad black rimmed eyes watched the other kids playing soccer. He squeezed his teddy bear as the kids kept laughing and kicking the old ragged ball. _

_But one of the kids kicked the ball too hard and it landed on top of a big wall. They stood in front of it wondering how they could get it back as the wall was too steep to climb it and they were still too young to do anything related to chakra._

_The redhaired boy called Gaara saw his chance there to actually be useful, so he used the sand to get the ball down the wall. It floated into his hand and as he held it out to the other kids they just stood there starring at him with horror in their eyes, then turned and ran away._

_Gaara clutched the ball not understanding why they were running away from him. He just wanted to help them. Why were they afraid of him? Why were they leaving him alone? He didn't want to be alone. He wanted to bring them back!_

"_Uhm…"_

_The boy turned around to see the source of the voice and was surprised to see a girl his age standing there nervously glancing up at him._

"_Uh, do you want to play with me?" she asked him smiling shyly. He blankly stared at her. She wanted to play with him? Wasn't she afraid?_

_The girl started grinning at him and scratched the back of her head._

"_Well, you know, I can't go out to play very often and since all the other kids have left I thought that we could play. At least if you want." she mumbled fidgeting with her fingers and her voice getting quieter with every word. _

_She waited for an answer but as the boy remained silent she already wanted to turn and leave but he stopped her._

"_W-Wait. I, uh, would be really glad to play with you." he answered insecurely. She looked at him and a smile grew on her face._

"_Okay! So you want to play soccer?"_

_The two kids randomly kicked the ball and ran after it. After they both were out of breath they played with the swings then started building a sand castle. The girl watched in awe as Gaara made the sand taking the shape of a castle by itself. As he finished the girl clapped and called his ability magic, the boy's fears that she would run away if she found out about his sand controlling now completely gone. She then decorated the sand building with rocks and twigs as he collected these things for her. _

_They were laughing and japing. But after a couple of hours as the girl looked up her gaze went blank and she stared in the distance. Gaara followed her gaze and found a woman standing at the entrance of the playground watching them with a stern look on her face._

"_I'm sorry. I have to go now." the girl mumbled with a monotone voice. _

_The boy helplessly watched her standing up and brushing the sand off her clothes, not knowing what to say to her. But before she leaved she turned to the boy._

"_Oh yeah, I forgot to ask for your name."_

"… _Gaara." he answered, again anxiety growing in him that now that she knew who he was she would become afraid of him and he would never be able to play with her like this again._

"_Okay, Gaara." she said smiling "My name's Minari. The next time when I can sneak away from home let's play again." _

_He nodded smiling. She waved goodbye to him and then went to the person that was now impatiently waiting for her. The boy stared at his hand__s the smile still present on his face._

"_Let's play again." he repeated, feeling this happy for the first time in his life. And for the first time he felt the urge to run home and tell his uncle about the great time he had today._

…_End of flashback_

* * *

Still in a dreaming state I felt like I was floating in a dark cold ocean. Still feeling dizzy I thought about the dream I had just now, or better the memory of my first meeting with Gaara. Gaara, my only childhood friend. But what happened? I grabbed my head as I tried to remember how I ended up in this state.

We had missions. Kakashi told me that I got transferred into another team. I wanted to tell my team mates and looked for them. As I found them I saw Gaara. And then…

**So you finally remembered.**

_You! _I growled at the voice that rang all too clearly through the darkness.

_What did you do to me?_

**I did nothing. ****The repressed memories were too much to handle for you so you passed out**, the voice explained.

_Then why did you decide to reappear in exact this moment, huh?_

**Because I was one of your repressed memories. But we can continue this conversation later. You should wake up now.**

Slowly the darkness and the numb feeling faded away and as I opened my eyes they got blinded by a bright light so I pressed them shut again.

"Ow, stupid headache!" I grumbled.

"Hey, she's awake!" I heard a familiar voice yelling. Unfortunately too loud, this made my headache only worse.

"Idiot! She said that she has a headache so stop shouting!" another person shouted.

"That applies to both of you, Naruto and Kiba." I growled irritated.

My eyes finally attached to the light and I now saw that I was in a hospital room. Seems like I was brought to hospital…

Around my bed were all my friends gathered who looked at my worriedly and relieved.

"What happened?" I asked confused.

"You lost consciousness." Sasuke explained who was standing beside the others leaning on a wall and now stepping forward.

"When we heard that we decided to visit you." Shikamaru said lazily.

"W-We bought you a fruit basket." Hinata told me and pointed at an overly cheesy decorated basket filled with fruits.

"Wow, thank you." I said smiling.

"But how long have I been unconscious?"

"Since yesterday." Naruto answered. Wow, a whole day. Wait, since when were they waiting here?

"But why did you collapse?" Kiba asked and got hit in the chest by Shino. Kiba, empathic as always.

I lowered my head in thought. Should I tell them?

**If you want to be killed, go on.**

_Can't you just shut up and leave me alone?_

I rolled my eyes and sighted. Will it go on like this from now on?

"What's the matter?" Naruto asked.

"Maybe you're hungry?" Choji suggested.

"Not everyone is as greedy as you, Choji." Kiba retorted and again doubled over in pain. Sometimes I wonder if he is a closet masochist and secretly enjoys it to always get beaten up.

I sniggered and then turned to face the others.

"Don't worry about me, I'm fine. More important, Naruto, Sasuke, I have to tell you guys something."

"What's up?"

"You know of the chunin exams?"

"Yeah and I'm definitely gonna pass, believe it!" Naruto boasted.

"Whatever. Anyway, because of this I got transferred to another team."

"What?" everyone shouted in unison. Too loud!

"Why do you get transferred?" Naruto wanted to know.

"Because only teams of three can participate."

"And why you?" Sasuke asked. Wow, seems like he actually minded me being away. I bet it was because I acted as his personal anti-Pinky-shield.

"I wonder." I answered sighting. I still preferred Pinky being thrown out instead of me.

"And what is your new team like?" Kiba asked.

"Dunno. I'm gonna meet them today."

"And when?"

I glanced at the clock that was conveniently located at the opposite wall.

"Exactly 10 minutes ago."

* * *

So that's it for this time! This chapter was brought to you by Corpse Bride and Resident Evil – Extinction. Not easy to write while watching TV.

Please review! I love review just like everyone else does!


	16. A new team

Hey there! Thanks to StellaMarris and Jestie Uchiha for your review!

Not much to say today… I'm hungry and it's raining… and I found a sock!

* * *

**Sins and Sunshine**

Chapter 16: A new team

**The first meeting and already late. That's not very polite of you, Minari-chan**, the voice in my head purred as I was on the way to the training ground where I was supposed to meet my new team being half an hour late.

_Shut up, Kumiho! _I shot back in my thoughts.

**Aww, playing unapproachable again**, Kumiho chuckled. **Even thought after eight long years we finally get to talk to each other again.**

_You really think I'm happy about that after you destroyed my life?_

**Destroyed? It's better than ever before.**

_But not thanks to you!_

**But it was me who saved your life. You should be a bit more grateful.**

_I didn't ask for being saved by you!_

**And I didn't ask for being sealed in you, now guess what happened.**

_Well, it's not like it's my fault. Why don't you complain to my parents instead? Oh wait, you killed them!_

It would have endlessly continued like this if it wasn't for the fact that I finally arrived at the training grounds, where my new team was already waiting. There I saw a boy pacing up and down.

"Now where's this newcomer? What takes him so long? Did he get lost on the way or what?" he complained his green eyes almost burning with anger. He was tall, tanned and had short blonde hair .

"You're too impatient." a man lectured him. He was in his early thirties and had short black hair. I assumed him to be my new sensei.

"Impatient? He's almost a whole hour late, damn it!" the blonde kept arguing.

"…" The third one didn't say anything, just kept watching the surroundings. It was a girl. She was tall, almost as tall as the sensei. She had long straight silver hair and her bangs covered the left one of her violet eyes. She wore a plain grey ninja outfit with a fitting grey Kakashi-like mask.

Okay, they were strange. Strange but sociable, I guess. I took a deep breath before I stepped on the training ground with a friendly smile on my face. At least I believe it was friendly, because I could swear my eyebrows kept twitching…

"Hello, I'm Minari. Nice to meet you." I greeted them smiling. A good first impression is really important. Although, the first impression was me being late, but let's not argue about such minor details.

"Wait! But. You're a girl!" the boy pointed out shocked by the fact that I'm female.

"No, duh, really? How did you find out?" I retorted rolling my eyes. Great first impression on my side there…

"Hello, Minari-chan. I'm your new sensei. You can call me Hatsuru-sensei." the man introduced himself. Then he pointed at the other two.

"They are Nobu and Ayano, you new team colleagues."

"Hey, Nobu-kun. Hey, Ayano-chan." I greeted them.

"…" Ayano still kept silent but nodded after eying me.

"Why of all things a kunoishi? Girls are weak and whiny." Nobu complained. And before he could react I already held a kunai to his throat, an evil grin on my face.

"Oh? You think so?"

"So it seems you want to fight to get to know each other." Hatsuru-sensei mused.

"Well I won't stop you. Have fun, kids."

Nobu started smirking and took a few steps away from me.

"Nice move but you won't get such a chance a second time."

Ayano took two kunai and came at me. She was fast and I could barely block her attack with my own kunai. She swirled around and aimed a kick to my side which I caught with my free arm but I had to back away as she tried to stab me with her second kunai.

I got a little distance between us but didn't have time to catch my breath because Nobu threw a load of punches at me. I dodged the first few and caught his fist as he aimed at my face. The force of his hit pushed me back and I doubted that I could keep this up any longer. So I caught again his next punch but this time used the force to push him past me and threw a kick at his back. He turned to absorb most of the force but landed on the ground this way.

He started grinning maniacally what really gave me the creeps but I didn't have any time to freak out because Ayano aimed with her weapons at my throat and I made a flip-flop backwards to dodge them and escaped on a tree. I breathed heavily and sweat rolled down my forehead. No wonder their former teammate ran away. If they're always like this, I'll have to fear for my life!

I breathed in and made some handseals.

"Wind release: Vacuum missiles!"

I directed my hands towards my opponents and ten small vacuum spheres formed in front of my finger tips.

I started grinning as I watched those two eying me suspiciously, then released my jutsu and sent the bullets flying towards their targets. The girl dodged them and blocked one bullet with her kunai which got slung away by the force of the vacuums. Nobu wasn't as quick and stepped to the side just in time to avoid the jutsu but two missiles brushed his arm and left two scratches.

Surprised he looked at the blood that was now flowing down his arm then directed his eyes at me, a crazy glint in them.

"You asked for it." he said smirking, bloodlust in his voice. An enormous amount of chakra focused in his right arm that began shimmering in a metallic glint. Ayano now pulled two threats out of her sleeves. On their ends were little blades that served as ballasts so she could let the threats spin in circles.

I gulped. Maybe I made a mistake. I shouldn't have angered them. As they approached the tree where I was currently standing on, I formed the handseals for my next jutsu.

Since the situation got out of control Hatsuru-sensei decided to intervene before any of us got seriously injured. And that would definitely be me!

"Stop it! I didn't plan to interrupt you but it looks like you all got a little bit too serious."

Nobu pouted and his arm turned to its normal tanned skin colour. Ayano put her weapons back and leaned against a tree with crossed arms and closed eyes.

I sighted with relief and jumped off the branch to walk over to the pouting boy with a grin on my face.

"It was fun. Let's do it again some time." Now Nobu, too, started grinning.

"Sure. And you're pretty strong. For a Kunoishi at least." he said and patted me on the back. Strongly. Should I mention that it hurt?

"Nothing better than a good fight to strengthen team bonds." the sensei laughed.

"How about we go and grab a bite to eat?"

* * *

We were sitting outside of some café and chatted.

"Say, Nobu, what did you do with your arm back then?" I asked him curiously.

"That's my Kekkei Genkai." I boasted proudly.

"I can let parts of my body turn as hard as steel."

"Only parts?"

"The whole body as well, but that wouldn't do any good because I wouldn't be able to move like that."

"That makes sense." I agreed. But I still thought that it was a pretty cool armor.

"Your jutsu also was pretty interesting." Hatsuru-sensei mentioned.

"I don't know anyone in the village who would know this kind of jutsu."

"That's because I'm not from here. I moved to Konoha about one year ago." I explained. Ayano starred at me and raised an eyebrow.

"From Suna." I answered her silent question. At least I thought I did.

"Wow. You actually knew what she wanted to say?" Nobu said completely astonished by my skill of guessing silent questions.

"Well after being in a team with Sasuke for some time now, you learn this pretty quickly. And everyone asks me that question." I replied grinning.

"But why won't you talk to me, Ayano-chan?" I then asked her.

"She doesn't talk to anyone. No one knows why." Nobu explained shrugging. The girl ignored him and looked away. I also shrugged then turned my attention towards a more recent topic.

"Say, sensei. When exactly will the Chunin exams take place?" Now the three of us perked up as the man cleared his throat.

"It's tomorrow." he told us. It was about time to tell us about that if you ask me.

"All you have to do is show up at the academy, room 301, and sign in."

"Cool! That exam will be a piece of cake!" the blonde said enthusiastically. He somehow reminded me of some other certain blonde I know.

"I guess we'll need more than just brute strength to pass this." I remarked and Ayano exchanged glances with me, a glint of amusement in her eyes. Seemed like she thought the same I did. An exam of knowledge and he'll completely fail!

* * *

So that's it for this chapter. Please tell me what you think of it or what I should change about the story to make it more interesting and all. I'm happy about every word of criticism I get, they help me becoming a better writer. Praise is welcome as well ^.^

About the jutsu: I just made it up. First I wanted to write it in japanese but I bet my translation would be complete crap.

So please review! Reviews make authors happy! Hell, who wouldn't like 'em? O.ô

Next chapter: Chunin exams time! And more Gaara! Yaay!


	17. First exam

Hey there! I'm sooooo totally sorry for this long delay that lasted for like forever! So much stuff happened on my side here and after I got some spare time to write again, my computer bitched and deleted the spell checker of my words program! Annoying computer! Well, now I have a laptop and everything's fine. :D

Well, enough with those stupid excuses! I should finally shut up, ne? But before that I still have to mention something that could be somewhat interesting for you.

I plan on rewriting the previous chapters! Seems like my Minari turned out to be kind of Mary-Sue. She isn't though. She's lazy, always nagging and weak in strength. But that didn't come out well enough so I have to change it. Not to mention those horrible spelling mistakes! *shudders* Well, the rewriting won't take place till the timeskip, so I don't have to rush. I know, I'm pretty lazy myself but oh well...

And again one little thing: the space bar of my laptop is a bit hard to push so sometimes I just write words together without noticing. Just telling you.

So before this babbling of mine gets longer than the actual chapter I will just stop here and let you enjoy the almost forgotten *cough* next chapter!

* * *

**Sins and Sunshine**

Chapter 17: First exam

"So how many stairs did we take?" I asked confused.

"One." Nobu answered.

"So we're in the second floor?"

"Basically."

"So why's there a room 301?"

"Wrong numbered?"

"Genjutsu?" I asked Ayano expecting a serious answer. She nodded and and took the next flight of stairs leeding to the 3rd floor. We followed suit.

_A preelemination? Witty._

Entering the real room 301 we singed up and then had still some time to waste till the exam starts, so I started to stroll around the room that was actually a auditorium and watched the team, that already arrived, looking for familiar faces. I found team 8 and 10, my former team 7 had still to arrive. Then I noticed the sand siblings midst the other genin teams and decided to go over and pay them a visit.

"Hello, Gaara." I greeted him friendly as I into there circle – or triangle, given the three persons standing there in a pretty equilateral triangle fashion. But since I just now destroyed the symmetry they slyly stepped aside to now form a perfect symmetrical square. How sly! (A/N: Since I'm watching too much Soul Eater lately: Kid would be proud!)

After creating room for me they finally noticed me with their eyes growing wide. So they unconsciously created this symmetry before even knowing who I was? I'm less important than their pretty fashion of standing around? Somehow that makes me a bit sad...

Well, Gaara's shocked expression didn't last very long and soon changed to a look of coldness and indifference. Seeing that hurt but I didn't let it get to me and kept smiling at him.

"Unfortunately our last meeting was a bit chaotic. But I never thought I'd meet you here!"

"Don't ignore us!" Kankuro started complaining like some spoiled child.

"Gaara's siblings." I greeted with a short nod in their direction, then continued to happily ignore those two and concentrated on the boy in front of me.

"You can't imagine just how much I miss you those past 8 years!" I said happily while glomping him, but since I felt his body tensing I moved a bit away and gave him a worried look, still holding his hands with mine.

"You okay?" I asked worriedly.

"..." Still just starring at me Gaara didn't say anything, so Kankuro decided to answer instead.

"We thought you were dead." he explained. Now I realized why they looking at me like I was some kind of zombie...

"Do I look dead to you?" I asked confused.

"Not really."

"So where's the problem?"

"What are you doing here?" Temari tried to change the topic.

"Chunin exam." I answered bluntly and mentally gave her a duh-expression. What did she think I was doing here in the academy, room 301, testing place for the first exam? Doing groceries?

So much for topic changing. But fortunately for her, she didn't have to think of another useless question, since suddenly an aura of killing intent was emitted from somewhere behind me. As I turned around I saw Sasuke standing there exchanging ultimate deathglares with Gaara. As I watched the dark aura emitting from now both males I heard someone shouting my name and got instantly tackled to the ground by a hug. Looking at Naruto cuddling into me I was so tempted to pat his head, but this stunt of his made the other two guys turning their glare at him, making him the victim of a doubled ultimate deathglare of doom. I wonder how long he could withstand without spontaneously cumbusting or petrifying. On the other hand, if that happened while he was still hugging me, I'd either get roasted or crushed. Better stop it before that happens...

**Aww,****looks****like****you****made****lots****of****friend****here,****Minari-chan.** Kumiho started cooing in my head. Like where weren't more urgent matters at hand than talking about friends.

**Of course there aren't, since the possibility is really low that you'd get crushed by a petrified person.**

_Forgot you could read me thoughts... Well to me even watching some bug crawling up a tree is more interesting than talking to you!_

**Of course I can. Where do you think I'm locked up? And don't be so mean to 'lil ol' me, sweetheart. What did I ever do to you?**

_What__you__did?_"You just destroyed my whole life!" I shouted in anger and was now confronted with shocked expressions.

_Damn! I actually said that out loud?_

There was chuckling in my head that slowly faded away, as I inwardly growled at her. Then I was pulled to the present again as the blond on top of me started sobbing and snot running down his nose. That better doesn't land on me!

"I'm so sorry!" he cried out, got off me and ran away in a dramatic manner.

"Wait, Naruto! That wasn't directed to you! I was just-" I shouted after him while getting off the ground, but stopped in the mid of the sentence. How should I explain this. Sasuke and the sand siblings gave me strange looks as if waiting for me to continue my explanation.

_Great. Now how do I get out of this?_

"Oi, Minari! You coming?" Nobu started shouting.

_And__not__one__second__too__late_, I thought.

"Sorry, have to go now. My teammates are waiting." I said smiling apologetically and left with a short wave of my hand, now looking for my team. This time Nobu really saved me there!

Later on Naruto got into trouble with some other team and pissed of the whole rest. And in between this I got to make up with him, but without letting the other teams know that I'm acquainted with him of course. Saves trouble for later.

Then, as if to prevent the boy from creating more trouble, a whole lot of Konoha ninjas popped out of some smoke and the one with the scarred face explained that the first exam now starts, his name is Ibiki Morino and that he's the first examiner.

Yay, finally the interesting part starts!

* * *

"Why of all things a written exam?" Nobu whined after Ibiki had explained the rules for the first test. He was sitting two rows in front of me, Ayano wasn't in my field of vision (blame me being small and all the others being so tall). A few seats away to my left was Kiba, who didn't look troubled in the slightest.

"Oy, Kiba-kun. Will you really be able to make it through this? This you have to _know_ things and all." I mocked him, perfectly ignoring the glares the ninjas sitting between us gave me. There tough luck for getting those seats.

Kiba gave me a self-confident smile and pointed at Akamaru, who sat an his head.

"I've learned since last time. With Akamaru I'll make it through this and to the next test with ease."

I giggled at this, then sensed someone watching me. Turning around I saw Gaara starring at me from three rows away. I waved at him with a smile then turned to the front again since Ibiki started explaining the rules. Buuh, rules!

After that they handed out the test papers and we could finally begin. I was pretty confident here. I may not be as smart as Pinky but still I'm not the stupidest thing in the world either. So after turning the paper around I began scanning the questions.

…..

…...

…..._Okay..._

…_... I don't understand anything!_

Tearing my hair, I really wanted to cry out now, but that would be awkward in a place like this. But seriously, aren't they exaggerating with the difficulty level of those questions?

I peeked around the room. At least I wasn't the only one who couldn't solve even one question. But what now? Handing back an empty sheet was out of question. Then the only option left was cheating! What were the rules again? Two points less for getting caught once. Not too deterrent to not to try it. And what did he say again? "The pathetic ones that get caught cheating will be destroying themselves". Just means I mustn't getcaught right?

A smug grin appeared on my face. This should be possible.

It seemed I wasn't the only one who came to this conclusion. It started to get busy in here. The sound of writing, the first ones getting thrown out, Akamaru's barking, Insects flying over the heads of the examinees... _Time__to__get__started__as__well_, I thought with eyes closed and a constant grin on my face while hiding my hands under the desk to form some handseals.

_Wind Release: Gaze of the preying Eagle!_

As I opened my eyes they changed from their normal chocolate colour to a piercing yellow and the pupils narrowed to small dots. With this Jutsu my eyesight just got multiplied by the factor 200. I could see as much as the hair on the legs of that fly sitting on the wall in front of me about 10 meters away. But of course the hair of a fly won't help me here – except for being an answer of one of the questions but I strongly doubt that. The thing of this jutsu is that any even surface reflects its surroundings. For example the windows or even the forehead protectors of the test supervisors show the reflections of the room, including the test sheets. So basically, I can act as if looking out of the window but in truth reading the answers off the sheets of others.

That's the theory behind it. In praxis it was a bit more tricky, since the answers were mirror-inverted, so I actually had to _think_! Stupid me believing this would be easy...

So after this hard work for my brain I was so tired that I released the jutsu and quickly fell asleep. Yep, sleeping. One might think it's a bad idea to sleep while a test is going on and the tenth question is still open... Well, I'll surely wake up the right time, since this is important...

* * *

CLASH!

I startled up from my sleep by the sound of a bursting window.

"Which idiot comes jumping through windows on the 3rd floor?" I asked loud as I was still half asleep and not quite aware of the situation. I looked around. There weren't that many teams left. One window was broken. Across the front of the room was now some banner and in front of it stood a woman who was now glaring at me, making me sweatdrop. I could it be I pissed off the-

"Who are you calling an idiot, brat? My name's Mitarashi Anko and I'm your next examiner!" she shouted.

Yep, I really pissed off the examiner of the next test. Tough luck, I guess. On the other hand, that'd mean-

"Does that mean we passed this exam?" I asked being dumbfounded.

"Of course it does. Did you sleep the past hour, or what?"

"Like a dog." I answered with a grin.

"What mad dogs did you let pass this?" Anko asked Ibiki with her eyebrow twitching.

"Could we please get back to the topic?" I asked nervously since so many people were giving me strange looks. Scary...

"Alright, then. We'll meet up tomorrow at the practice area 44. Be on time!" she shouted and then vanished. Like a ninja.

"Minari-chaaaan! We passed, believe it!" Naruto shouted happily as we were leaving the academy and was about to glomp me again, but was stopped by a kick in the face.

"..." Ayano retreated her leg and watched the blonde flying backwards.

"Hey! What was that for?" he complained at the top of his voice while sitting on the ground and pointing his index finger at her. Pointing at others. Rude.

"..."

"Aren't you going to answer me?"

"It's okay. He's a friend of mine. He's always like this." I said to Ayano grinning then walked over to the boy and offered him a hand.

"She won't answer you." I explained "because she doesn't speak."

His mouthed formed an 'O' and he sheepishly scratched the back of his head laughing stupidly.

"Hey, Minari-chan! How did you actually find the time to sleep?" Kiba said with a broad smirk as he walked over to us.

"It was easy. Just cross your arms on the desk, lie your head down, close your eyes and sleep." I answered grinning the same way.

"But how come you passed this? Thought you wouldn't be able to answer a single question."

"Well, I wasn't. But Akamaru had an easy time reading the answers and telling them to me." he laughed and Akamaru barked proudly while wagging his tail.

"Aw, Akamaru can read? Then your actually smarter then your master, eh?" I cajoled the little doggy while patting his head. There Kiba finally realised what I was saying just now.

"Hey-!"

"Oi, what's going on here?" Nobu asked when joined up with us, then placed his hand on my shoulder while pointing with the other at Naruto and Kiba.

"Who are those blockheads?"

"Blockheads?" those two repeated indignantly with flames of anger in their eyes.

"Nobu-kun, these are Kiba-kun and Naruto-kun, friends of mine." I introduced.

Nobu then turned to them, put up a smug grin and pointed at Ayano and himself.

"I'm Nobu and this is Ayano. We're the teammates of Minari-chan. She's now mine so don't you touc-"

Whack!

"Who's yours?" I retorted irritated and rammed my elbow in his face.

"Well, I have to go home now to get ready for tomorrow. See you." I waved at them then walked away.

"Wait! I'm going, too!" Naruto shouted then ran after me.

"Then I'm going,too." Nobu proclaimed but got cut off by me.

"No."

"Why not? He's allowed to so why not me?" he pouted.

"Naruto's living in the same apartment as me so I don't care. But I'm afraid that you'll start stalking me, when you find out where I'm living." I explained dryly then started again to walk away.

"Just what did I do wrong?" Nobu whined falling on his knees.

"..." Head shaking Ayano eyes the crybaby sitting on the ground bawling his eyes out. And this is her teammate...

* * *

Yay, chapter finished! I know, it wasn't that long but 1. I have to stick to my script and 2. I'm dead tired!

Just noticed that I actually made a pun. Yay for my first pun! Though it wasn't planned at all... at a~~~~ll!

And I know in the manga and anime they don't wait till the next day to continue the exam but since I have some artistic freedom here it's no like that. Ha! Take that manga script!

And since it was such a long time since the last update I won't proofread this and just post it! If I (or you) find any irritating faults I'll fix it tomorrow... or so.

Oh and I try to get back to my biweekly updates, but I can't promise anything. Even though my friend keeps pestering me to write, it's for some other story... Well I hope this'll satisfy her too or I'll be minced meat... *shudders*

Well if I'm not writing just kick my ass, since for this year I don't have any excuses left. Next year I have my final exams so I don't know then but that's still some time...

So Gute Nacht I'll go to bed now...

7


	18. Forest of Troubles

Hey there! I'm back in my biweekly updating rhythm, yay!

Thanks and imaginary cookies to Miko Hayashi, Jestie Uchiha and Aiko Tachibana for your wonderful reviews! ^.^

Not much to say this time except that I started writing early today since I still have to study for that English test tomorrow... Ugh studying... -.-

* * *

**Sins and Sunshine**

Chapter 18: Forest of troubles

"It's called the 'Forest of Death'." Anko announced as all the Genin teams assembled in front of some huge fenced in forest.

"Why is it called Forest of Death?" I asked confusedly.

"Dunno. Maybe it's dangerous in there." Nobu suggested and started grinning like a madman by the thought of life-threatening dangers. Sometimes I really wonder what went wrong with his brain...

"But then wouldn't Forest of Dangers or Forest of Creepiness be more suited?"

"Or Forest of Giant Trees. That'd also suit it pretty well."

"Or Forest of Giant Insects." I said and grimaced as I watched this huge-ass centipede crawling up one of those gigantic trees.

We continued making up new stupid names for the forest until Ayano motioned us to shut up and listen to Anko, since she had something to say that'd be important for the test and she was the test supervisor and such.

"You all have to sign these agreement forms, since there'll be deaths in this test and I don't want to be made responsible for it!" she said with an angel like smile and bloodthirsty aura at the same time, then handed out the forms. Not that I'd care for this death thing, just have to stay with my group and nothing could possibly happen to me, right?

So after signing the forms we got handed out an earth scroll.

"I want to have the scroll!" Nobu shouted and instantly got a punch to the head by me.

"Sure you will. Then everyone of the other teams knows who of us has the scroll. Is your head just for decoration or what?" I growled sarcastically. In the meanwhile Ayano took the scroll and hid it somewhere in her clothes. Perfect! If Ayano has the scroll nothing can go wrong!

"Let's go to gate 37!" I proclaimed and advanced in the direction of my desired gate's location.

"Why 37?" Nobu asked.

"Because it's my favourite number."

"If it's like that, then I want gate 13!"

"You know that 13 is an unlucky number?"

"Really?"

"..." Ayano pointed at the gate 2 which I just passed.

"Okay. You have the scroll, you decide." I said shrugging.

Then after every teams found their gate some guard ninja opened it for us so we could proceed to the testing area.

"Woohoo! It's showtime, baby!" Nobu shouted in high spirits as we leaped onto the trees.

* * *

"Damn! I wonder where the two of them went?"

Not even 20 minutes passed since the beginning of the test and I already got separated from my teammates. Tough luck, I guess.

So as I aimlessly wandered around in this creepy forest looking for my friends, I actually met someone! Well it was some random genin from Kusagakure, so nothing to be happy about. He was leaping through the trees but stopped dead in his track as he saw me standing at the ground and starring at him.

"She looks weak." he mumbled and instantly jumped from the tree to go right at me with a kunai. I dodged him gained some distance and drew my own kunai.

"You know, I don't have the scroll." I told him with a cool expression, but either he didn't believe me or he deliberately ignored me, since he kept attacking me, thinking I was weak. Not nice, you know, judging a person by one's appearance. Okay, basically he was right, I'm not the toughest ninja out there, but still!

After 5 minutes of endlessly dodging his ignorant attacks I grew quite tired of it.

"Did you even listen to me?" I asked him for the nth time as I jumped on a tree branch. No answer. Great.

Finally I was irritated enough, that I landed on the ground with kunais in each hand, waiting for him to get close enough. He was now 5 meters away from me not even acknowledging me as a potential danger when-

POW!

He got smashed into the ground as something heavy landed on him in full speed. I blinked twice and after the whirled up dust vanished I saw that this something was actually Nobu, who turned his arm metallic with his Kekkei Genkai and punched him right in the back after leaping off a branch above us.

"Lucky, he has a heaven scroll!" the blonde stated with a broad grin and handed the scroll to Ayano, who jumped from a tree and stepped next to him to retrieve the item and putting it away.

"Hey guys, just on time." I said grinning at my friends.

"Minari-chan! Where have you been? Don't just wander off all on your on!" Nobu scolded me and all I could do was grinning sheepishly while scratching my cheek.

"Well, I guess I was in thoughts?"

"At least we got this guy thanks to you. His teammates didn't have a scroll with them and if it wasn't for you we'd still be searching for him." Nobu explained and kicked the unconscious body of that genin. Poor guy. Must be tough to be one of Nobu's victims.

"So now all we have to do is reaching that tower right?" I asked realizing that we now had the scrolls we needed.

"Yep, so let's go and get there first!"

* * *

Half an hour later...

"Damn it! Not again!" I cursed as I got separated from my team for the second time. Maybe I should stop daydreaming...

Now since I got nothing better to do I leapt from tree to tree trying to sense familiar chakra. And after some time I finally sensed something. As I approached the chakra that I sensed I found Kiba, Hinata and Shino cowering behind some bushes. I landed on a tree branch next to them and gave them a friendly smile when they noticed me. Then hiding in the shadow of the tree I took a peek at the meadow to see whatever made my friends cowering in fear like that.

There was Gaara (and siblings) standing in the midst of the small meadow facing a team from Amegakure. One of the Ame-nin threw his umbrellas in the air from which senbon were hailing down on Gaara. He however defended himself by hiding in a cocoon of sand in which all the needles got stuck making the cocoon look like a hedgehog.

_A__hedgehog__with__a__hot__redhead__inside..._Stop! I didn't think of my childhood friend as hot just now! Evil thoughts out of my head!

Anyway, Gaara then trapped his opponent in his Desert Coffin and made it floating in the air. Then after picking up one of those umbrellas he crushed that guy with his Desert Graveyard Jutsu, blood splattering everywhere dyeing everything red, except for Gaara who had an umbrella with him. The other guys were so horrified that they gave him their scroll in hope to be spared by the redhead but he showed no mercy and killed them the same way like the umbrella guy. More blood poured down like rain and one blood splatter even brushed my cheek forming there a thin line of red.

Absentmindedly I brushed the blood of my cheek and rubbed it between my fingers. To say I was shocked would be a complete understatement. That boy down there wasn't the cute lonely boy from my childhood anymore. I wondered what possibly could have happened to chance his attitude so drastically.

But I didn't have enough time to think about it. Gaara's thirst for blood was still not satisfied and made him grave for more killing. A cold shiver ran down my spine. His voice together with the cold expression in his eyes left me with a sensation of fear. And if that wasn't enough he turned to exactly where my friends were hiding. We changed glances of utter horror. He would kill them for sure if nothing happens. I leaned against the trunk of the tree and took a deep breath. I can do it.

I forced a smile on my lips and stepped out of the shadow of the tree. The meanwhile I motioned the three to make a run for it and hoped at the same time that Gaara wouldn't go as far as killing me.

"Minari? What are you doing here?" Kankuro asked shocked as he saw me.

"I was just passing by." I said laughing stiffly and scratching the back of my head. Gaara watched me with an intensive stare which made me even more nervous.

"You saw it." he said. It wasn't a question but a statement. I nodded obediently.

"I did."

"I'm a monster."

"I always told you, of all the people out there, you're the least likely one to be called a monster. And this still hasn't changed, you know?" After saying that I felt a bit more courageous and as the killing intent of the boy slowly faded I inwardly heaved a sight of relief. Seemed like there was still something left of the boy that I used to call my most important friend.

He kept starring at me for a while before finally continuing to speak.

"...You didn't chance at all."

"But you all the more." I answered softly with a bitter voice. But the moment those words left my mouth I wanted to hit my head with something hard. He finally calmed down and what am I doing? Provoking him again! How can I actually be so stupid?

His stare intensified to a glare that pierced right through me. Out of the corner of my eyes I could see his siblings backing quickly backing away, but I didn't avert my eyes from his, or better I couldn't. The coldness in this glares made me unable to move even one muscle.

"Are you afraid of me?" Even his voice was cold and sent shivers down my spine. And to make it worse, I didn't have the slightest idea how I could get out of this mess without threatening my own life or baking the heart of my friend. Lying wasn't an option either, he'd see right through it. And if that wasn't bad enough, a bloodthirsty smirk formed on his lips and his eyes seemed to darken.

"I'm terrifying you." His now completely estranged voice made me snap out of it. I gripped with shoulders gently yet firmly and look deep into his eyes.

"Yeah, you really are frightening me if you're acting all weird like this, so stop it and turn back to normal so I can give you a hug."

Surprised he blinked at me and again the evil aura around him vanished. I grinned and pulled him into a short hug.

"That's better." I stated happily and suppressed to laugh when Temari and Kankuro slowly came nearer after sensing that the danger was over.

"Okay now that this is settled..." I started looking at the three of them. "Unfortunately I got separates from my team and I'm afraid if I'm trying to make my way to the tower all alone I'll most likely never get there."

They gave me strange look as if telling me to get to the point. So I used my most friendly smile I had up my sleeves.

"Can I accompany you? Pretty please!"

The older siblings exchanged looks while the younger one didn't even look at me as he spoke.

"I don't care as long as you don't come in my way."

My smile changed into a grin and I happily hugged him again.

"Yay! Thanks Gaara, you're the best!"

So while following those three a familiar presence appeared in my mind.

**Be****careful,****Minari,** Kumiho whispered inside my head. Her voice having an unusual sternness.

**Compared with the past he is now able to easily kill you.**

_I know but he won't._

**What makes you so sure? He isn't the boy you knew anymore.**

_I'm aware or that but I still believe in him and that he won't harm me._

**And just with this belief of yours you risk to get yourself killed?**

_It's my duty as a friend to help him. Since I have the feeling that this is actually all my fault..._

The sound of a sight resounded in my mind.

**Do what you want, but be warned. If it gets dangerous I'll take control and you know how this'll end.**

_Don't worry I won't get myself into dangerous situation. I slowly begin to understand him and I definitely won't fail._

With this the voice disappeared from my mind though leaving behind a feeling of anxiousness. But I quickly put it aside and went to walk next to my old friend Gaara.

* * *

In the tower...

"Aww, how long do we still have to wait here?" I whined.

"We're standing here for already half a day doing absolutely nothing." Kankuro agreed.

We reached the tower in record time and since then were waiting for anything to happen.

After strolling through the tower for a while we were now in some sort of lounge and to put it simple, it was boring!

It became evening and three or so other teams finally arrived here, too. One of them was team 8, so I decided to go and talk to them.

"Hey guys!" I greeted as I walked up to them.

"Minari-chan, you're alive!" Kiba yelled.

"Err yeah... Seems so."

"W-When d-did you arrive?" Hinata asked me timidly.

"Some hours ago. I went here together with the team from Suna."

"What? You mean that crazy guy that wanted to kill us?" Kiba shouted completely shocked.

"His name is Gaara and back when I was still living in Suna he was a really good friend of mine, okay?" I vindicated my childhood friend. "And I actually saved your butt back there so a little bit of gratitude wouldn't be too bad, you know?"

Kiba went silent and averted his eyes, but mumbled a faint 'thanks' between his pouting.

"You lost your team?" Shino asked and I smiled sheepishly at him.

"Yeah. Couldn't find them anywhere so I had to find someone else who'd show me the way."

"There." He pointed to the entrance and when I turned around to in the direction he was pointing I saw Nobu and Ayano entering the lounge.

"Booh!" I whispered into Nobu's ear after I successfully sneaked up to him and making him jump and scream like a girl.

"Minari-chan! Don't ever do that again!" I scolded me after getting back his composure from screaming like a girl.

"And what the hell are you doing here?"

"Well after I lost you again I thought, it'd be best to meet up with you two at the tower. Seems like that was a good idea after all." I explained.

"And did you already open the scrolls?" I then asked them after remembering that when the sand siblings opened them a chunin did appear, that told them they passed.

"Yeah, we did. Then Iruka-sensei appeared and told us that we passed." Nobu stated. Seems like this is the same with all the teams...

"Then he asked where you were and that we could only pass as a team. We told him that you were already waiting at the tower. Good thing this was actually the case, otherwise we would have failed!" he scolded me. Oops...

* * *

And again it got late... fail...

Okay I reaaaally loved the scene in the manga when Gaara used the umbrella to not get dirty by the blood rain. It was just too... sexy! X3 I'm a Gaara fan, leave me alone xP

Somehow this chapter got in some parts pretty depressing and it wasn't that funny either... Well this is nothing compared to the next chapter... depression at full force... Okay who cares.

Please review! Really luv reviews, such a wonderful feeling to know that there are actually people out there that like the things that I write... Haaaaa... *drifting off to lala-land* Anyway please review and make this poor little author happy ;)


	19. Blue Eyes

Hey there! I know I'm a bit too late with this update... Blame all the events I had to play in this online game...

Lots of thanks and cookies to Miko Hayashi, Jestie Uchie and my lil honey for your lovely reviews! Really, thank you so much! ^.^

Rate Mal D: Tja wer kann das wohl sein... Hmmmh *-*

**About** the title of this chapter: You know _Blue__Eyes_ by _Within__Temptation_? After I finished that chapter and later listened to that song I was like: WTF? The lyrics perfectly fit Gaaras past! I went so much OMG and WTF that I chose the song title as the title of the chapter and I'd like to suggest that you listen to that song while reading the past scenes, well just if you wanna! ^.^

So much to my ramblings... now enjoy!

* * *

**Sins and Sunshine**

Chapter 19: Blue Eyes

After a long day of sitting around and waiting for time to pass by it finally became dark. So after a nice supper in the tower kitchen – and guess who had to cook – I could finally go to bed. Luckily in this tower where rooms with three beds each especially prepared for those who reached the tower early, so I didn't have to sleep on the cold stone floor. Lucky me! Well, not as lucky as I first guessed since my sleep was full of dreams that that I didn't have for a long time now...

* * *

"_Mommy, Mommy! Why can't I play with other kids?" the three-year-old Minari asked her mom in a whiny voice._

"_Because you're something special, my love." the woman answered smiling down at the little girl that was tucking at her apron while she was preparing supper._

"_But Gaara's also special, so why can't I play with him?"_

_The smile turned into a frown as her daughter brought up the name of that cursed boy. She kneeled down and gently stroke the girl's cheek._

"_Because he's a monster, love. So you mustn't go near him."_

"_But if he's a monster then so am I, right?" the girl persisted._

"_That's something different."_

"_In which way? Explain it to me!"_

_Her mother sighted and stood up to face the vegetables again that she was cutting before._

"_The Ichibi got sealed in that boy to bring it under control and use it as a weapon. It's evil and an instrument of war and above all he is too weak to control it and could go berserk any time." _

"_But isn't it the same with me and Kumiho?"_

"_No, it isn't. Since generations the Takanaki clan suppresses the ancient fox demon Kumiho by sealing it inside their clansmen to keep her from savaging the lands. Its an honour to be chosen as the vessel. You're a hero not a monster, you understand?" with the last sentence the woman kneeled down again, laid her hands on the girls shoulders and looked seriously in her eyes as to find out if she really understood what was just said. But the girls kept being persistent and retorted the gaze defiantly._

"_No, I don't! If this is such a honour, when why get I hidden away from the others and can't go outside to play?"_

"_That's because if the elders would find out about Kumiho, they'd fear it's might and try to destroy it, resulting in killing us all together. Thus we have to keep it a secret."_

_The girl gulped as her mother said this so seriously. She was well aware of the ninja world and its harshness so things like killing are normal means to get rid of potential dangers. But in spite of knowing she was still a naive kid and just didn't want to understand._

"_But why are you so much against me playing with Gaara?"_

"_Because of his unstable mind and lack of power to control the Shukaku he's under constant watch, so the danger of you getting exposed is too great when you are mear him. In another case he could also lose control and try to kill you and I couldn't forgive myself if that ever happened."_

"_He would never hurt me!" the girl shouted wanting to protect her friend. The woman bitterly smiled back at her._

"_I know that, love, that he'd never hurt you on his own will, but Shukaku would. Unlike you he has to fight his biju day and night so it could easily happen that at a weak moment the Ichibi takes over and hurts you." She now patted her daughter's head and continued with a much gentler voice._

"_Your dad any I, we understand if you sneak out sometimes to play with other kids. It's okay as long as you don't overdo it. But please promise me to stay away from Gaara."_

_Minari couldn't the pleading gaze of her mother and averted her eyes. She understood the worries of her parents, but still, she really liked Gaara and didn't want to break contact with him. But she wouldn't be able to tell this her mom, so she looked up and nodded._

"_Okay."_

"_Thank you." her mother replied smiling and stroke the girl's hair again before getting back to her supper preparations. _

_Minari took the stairs up to her room and after closing the door behind her she flopped onto her bed burying her face in the pillows. After a while she turned her head to gaze at the window. She stood up and walked over to peek through the glass on the now empty playgrounds. Seems like the other kids already had to go home. Their house was located next to the playgrounds with her room facing there. Often she spent hours to stand there and watch the other kids playing. There she'd always notice that boy that sat on the swing watching the others play with with a longing gaze the same way she did. This was when she first got curious about Gaara and since then she always wanted to talk to him, thought she never had the courage to._

_Sighting she turned around and flopped on the bed again, this time facing the ceiling._

I don't know what to do... _the__ girl__ thought __releasing __yet__ another __discouraged __sight._

_**You**** always ****wanted ****to ****be friend ****that ****Ichibi-boy. ****And**** now**** that ****you ****did, ****why ****are ****you ****doubting**** yourself ****so ****much?**The voice called Kumiho asked the girl._

But I gave mommy my promise.

_**Promises are just words. Nothing that should stop you.**_

But mommy trusts me.

_**And that boy trusts you to come and play with him again. What do you plan on doing? Telling him that you won't play with him anymore thus breaking his heart?**_

_The girl's eyes widened in shock._

Never would I do this!

_**Then you have to make a decision. The trust of your mother or the happiness of that boy.**_

But I don't know... _she__thought__sadly._

_**Then ****take ****your ****time ****to ****think**** about ****it.**** But**** don't ****take ****too ****long, ****the ****boy ****will**** wait**** for ****you ****tomorrow**** and ****till ****then ****you ****have ****to ****make ****up ****your ****mind.** Kumiho said and then left the girl's mind leaving even heavier feelings behind._

"_Great now it's even worse then before..." Minari mumbled then turned to sleep._

* * *

3rd person POV...

"Wow, she really went to sleep. I thought she was lying when she said she was going to bed this early." Nobu whispered as he looked as the sleeping form of his team comrade careful not to wake her up. When he wanted to step nearer to inspect her further he got stopped by an ungentle yank on his collar. Ayano pulled him to the bed that was the farthest away from the sleeping girl and motioned him that she'd prevent him from going anywhere near her.

Much to Minari's dismay, every team got only one room to share. So after long and futile struggle of her that she didn't want to share a room with Nobu, Ayano promised her that she'd stop him if he ever tried something funny on her. Luckily for her he wasn't stupid enough to risk his life on something silly.

* * *

_The next day in the evening when her parents were away little Minari sneaked out of home again to visit her red-haired friend who was already waiting for her at the playground. _

"_Gaara!" she shouted happily almost running straight into him "Sorry that I'm late, I had to wait until my parents were gone."_

"_I thought you wouldn't come." the boy mumbled a bit sad by the thought._

"_Aww, never would I do this. I promised I'd come, didn't I?" the girl answered grinning and ruffling the boy's red locks. _

"_But you know" she then said with a more serious voice "My mom told me I can't play with you anymore."_

_As soon as she said this she was instantly confronted with a pair of shocked and utterly sad blue eyes._

"_Buuuut" she continued with a grin "since I don't want to, we have to keep it a secret from them. Is that okay with you?"_

_First the boy stared at her confusedly but then nodded with a small smile on his lips._

"_So now after this is resolved, what do you want to do?"_

_~After this day the two kids tried to see each other as often as possible and soon became inseparable friends. Every time her parents were at work Minari'd go and see Gaara who'd stay at the playground everyday waiting for her. This way more than a year had passed and their friendship grew stronger and stronger._

_Of course Minari's parents already knew what was going on. One night when her mother checked on her while she was aspleep she heasd her calling out Gaara's name. Then some time later when she came early from work she saw the two kids at the playground. Of course her parents didn't like this but after witnessing how happy those two were together they didn't have the heart to separate them and just had to accept this and pray that nothing would happen._

_~Then one certain day..._

"_You broke it!" Minari shouted at the boy while pointing at the pile of broken parts that once has been a small wooden music box. The girl brought it with her to show it Gaara, but while playing he tripped and fell on it thus braking it._

"_That wasn't on purpose!" the boy shot back. "I didn't mean to!"_

"_That was the only memento of my grandmother and you broke it!"_

"_I already said I'm sorry, I'll buy you a new one!"_

"_I don't want a new one, I want this one! You're a real jerk!"_

"_And you're a fusspot!"_

"_Crybaby!"_

"_Silly cow!"_

"_Ahhrg! I hate you! I won't play with you ever again!" she screamed now completely enraged and angrily stomped away._

_The boy glared after her with a sour expression. Then he glanced at the broken toy, collected its parts and then walked away._

_The while Minari stormed into her house, slamming the door shut behind her, leaned against it and started crying. She regretted to say such harsh words to her only friend but now that she did she didn't have the guts to go and apologize to him. She sat there on the ground crying and sobbing, even after her mother came home she couldn't stop. The woman pulled her into a embrace and batted her back then stood up her daughter still in her arms and pazed back and forth in the living room rocking her in her arms._

_Suddenly the got smashed open and Minari's father stormed in making the females looking up at him in suprise. He was huffing and sweating an expression of horror on his face._

"_Dear, they found out! We have to get away from here, fast!"_

_They all shared a horrified gaze. The worst case scenario was taking place. They hurried to leave but were stopped by two explosions. One on the upper floor, the other by the window beside them. The man pushed the other two to the ground to shield them from the glass fragments and the blast of the explosion._

"_Shit." he cursed and hurried his family to stand up and get out but it was already too late. They were now surrounded by 3 Anbu, some more coming from upstairs._

_The man grabbed the shoulders of his daughter and wife holding them tightly to him. He observed nervously the shinobi, sweatdrops gathering on his forehead, while the other two wore expressions of fear, the little girl shaking violently._

"_Noriko, Shin and Minari Takanaki, last survivors of the Takanaki-clan." One of the intrudors began speaking from behind his bird mask and taking a step forth. The other masked men also drew closer as if expecting the small family to escape any moment. Unperturbed the bird mask continued with a monotone cold voice._

"_For being in possession of a demon thus committing high treason you shall be sentenced to death."_

_The family man's grip tightened as all of them watched the Anbu in horror as he gave his subordinates the signal to attack. Minari was pushed back and her parents took a stance in front of her, a determination in their eyes that said they'd fight to death to protect her. Unfortunately they were no match for the powerful Anbu and the girl had to watch in horror as her mother got pierced by the sword of the enemy when she used her body to shield her daughter._

"_Dear!" Minari's father shouted as he saw his wife gliding off the now blood stained blade. Unfortunately this distraction caused him to end up just like her, with a kunai sticking out from his throat. He tried to call out to the girl that stared at him in fear, but all that came out of his mouth was blood and gurgling sounds._

_Horrified the little girl watched her parents sinking to the ground with a hollow stare and covered in their own blood._

"_M-monny, d-daddy." the girl stuttered her eyes filling with tears. _

"_Wake up, mommy, daddy, don't die!" she then screamed shaking her parents' dead forms violently._

_The men shared a look before one of them stepped forth making the girl look up at him with an appalled stare._

"_Don't worry kid, soon you'll see your parents again." the man said and rose his sword._

"_You killed my parents." the girl stated now without any trace of fear in her voice as if the death of her parents had robbed her sanity and fixated her gaze on the man in front of her. The pupils of her eyes turned into slits and an ominous aura started to emitt from her, making the shinobi startle and back away from her._

"_What __the __hell _is _she?__" __he__ asked __nervously __as __the __girl __kept __silently __staring__ at __him._

"_She's a demon, you forgot? Now, kill it before it's too late!" another one urged him. _

_As he looked back at her she started smirking before throwing her head in the neck and screaming out of pain. She screamed and screamed the pain getting greater while strange silvery chakra concentrated around her._

"_Retreat!" the bird masked man shouted but it was already too late. The chakra compressed around her body and got discharged in the form of a giant lightning tower that engulfed the whole house including everyone inside it and enlightened the village for a few seconds before disappearing in the sky leaving only the traces of a burned house behind. _

* * *

Tearing her eyes open Minari stared at the wooden ceiling of the tower room they used as their night quarter. Her body was soaked in cold sweat and her mouth too dry to even let out a scream. Which was actually a good think since this way she didn't wake up her teammates. Sitting up she looked over at them. Ayano slept with her head resting on her arm and Nobu was soundly asleep twitching in his dream.

Quietly the girl glided out of her bed and tiptoed to the bathroom. The splashed the cold water into her face and took a sip before taking a look at herself in the small mirror that hang over the sink. She was bleach and dried tears had left a crust on her cheeks and the corners of her eyes. Quickly she wiped them away with a wet towel and then put it in her neck to get away the sticky feeling of sweat. She wanted to take a shower but then she would surely wake up the other so she decided against it, instead left the room and went on a stroll around the tower. The while the thought of that dream, no, that memory she had and remembered what had happened after that incident.

* * *

_Slowly the girl opened my eyes and stared at the endless desert in front of her that was enlightened by the soft light of the countless stars. She tried to stand up but instantly flopped back to the ground from the great pain in her body that felt as if it was burning. What exactly had happened?_

_**I**** saved**** you**, Kumiho stated in her head with a matter-of-fact-voice._

W-what happened to my parents?

_**They are dead. You're the only one that survived.**_

W-what?

_**They**** were ****already ****dead ****when ****I ****gave ****you ****my ****powers.**** There ****was**** nothing**** you**** could ****have ****done**** for ****them**, she stated cooly._

They really are dead... _She thought __sadly __staring __at __the __night__sky __tears __again __running __down __her __cheeks. __Sobs __came __out __of __her __throat __as __the __girl __let __all __the __sadness __out __that __she __felt __inside __of__ her. __She __had __lost __everything. __Her __home, __her __parents, __her __only __friend, __everything!_

_**They**** think ****you ****also ****died**** along ****with ****the ****others. ****You**** should ****take**** the ****chance ****and**** flee**** as ****long ****as ****they**** still**** do ****so**, the voice urged her reminding Minari of her current situation._

_Shakily she stood up and wiped away the tears with her sleeve. Kumiho was right. But there was still something which hindered her to just leave like that. She turned to face the village and dashed towards it, looking for the only person which had to know that she was still alive._

_~She found Gaara on the roof of a building. I wanted to go near him but something didn't let me. An ominous chakra filled the air and hindered me to approach him._

_He stood there crying, but something just didn't feel right. His eyes were full of hatred and anger, he also had the kanji for love tattooed on his forehead. In front of him lay his uncle on the ground, dead._

"_My family wants to kill me, my friend hates me. If it's like this then I don't need any love!" he said with a cold and hurt voice._

_The girl felt her heart break. Again she broke a promise to a person important to her. They wanted to be best friends forever and what did she?_

_She wanted to be near him, take him in her arms, telling him how sorry she was for what she said to him and that she was so happy to have a friend like him._

_But the immense chakra restrained her from doing so and Kumiho kept urging to get out of the here._

_With a heavy heart and tears in her eyes she turned away and left. As she did so she wished for her friend to find his happiness and that he wouldn't have to suffer like that anymore. At the same time she was determined to become stronger so that some day when they meet again she'd be able to face him and sincerely apologize to him. Then after she was sure that Gaara had found his happiness she'd finally be able to find a home and happiness on her own._

* * *

Tears ran down my face. Now I was reunited with my friend again but he didn't look happy even one tiny bit and I wasn't so sure if I had the courage to face him and to say how sorry I was for all that had happened.

I went up a flight of stairs that lead to the roof. As I opened the door I was hit by the chilly night air and stared in awe at all the stars that were shining in the sky. There was even a full moon and as I gazed at it I happened to notice a person that sat right in front of it on the edge of the roof top.

"The moon is beautiful today." I said in a soft voice as I stepped beside him still staring at the scenery in front of me and sat down.

The redhead glanced at me before he continued to stare straight ahead. After a few minutes had passed he finally spoke up.

"Why are you here?"

"I couldn't sleep." I answered with a soft smile.

"I didn't mean that." he retorted in a cold tone. I glanced at him and realized what he meant. With a silent sight I dropped my head on my knees.

"I'm currently living in Konoha. Here I became a ninja and so I ended up in this exam.", I said and glanced at him but he still didn't look at me, instead his eyes became even harder. When he finally faced me I could see the reproach in his eyes.

"Why did you leave Suna? Why aren't dead like they all said?"

My eyes widened and I held my breath as I realized the hurt in his voice and eyes. I averted my eyes not able to look him in the face, tears stinging in my eyes. His eyes narrowed as I still didn't give him an answer.

"So you won't tell me." He stated coldly and moved to stand up but I stopped him by grabbing his hand.

"Wait Gaara. What I said to you that time, I didn't mean it and I regretted it the moment I said it but I didn't have the courage to apologize to you. I'm really sorry for all that had happened and I wished I could change it and-"

The words just kept flowing out and tears began slowly making their way down my face, but I got interrupted by Gaara who now forcefully freed his hand from my grasp. With wide eyes I stared at him as he searched for something in a pocked of his clothes. Then he places whatever he was looking for in front of me and stood.

"You better stay away from me from now on." he said with a cold voice not letting me see his face and then vanished. For an unknown time I stared blankly at the spot where he still stood moments ago and without any sound I bawled my eyes out. He didn't accept my apology, he left me, he didn't forgive me, he hated me, he didn't want to see me ever again.

Slowly my eyes wandered to what Gaara had given me before he left. As I recognised it my started to cry even harder. I took the little wooden box and hugged it to my chest as the streams of tears were flowing down like two waterfalls. Grandmother's music box, he had repaired it with his sand! But how should I interpret this? Did he actually wait for me to apologize to him? Or did he just want to repay a debt? I wiped my running nose and stood up. Maybe I still had a chance for him to forgive me. With this thought in mind I sneaked back into my room and crawled under the blanket, hugging the music box close to me as I drifted into sleep.

_I still have a chance..._

* * *

Okay, this got even more depressing than I first intended it to be... Well, hope you enjoyed it nonetheless!

This chapter is longer than most of the others, hope this makes up for my delay. Oh and since this update is one week late, it means that the next chapter will be up next week, probably! But this shouldn't be much a problem...

Why was the doc manager bitching just now? randomly writing whole sentences together -.- booh more unnecessary for me to do...

Well, tell me what you all thought, I'd like to hear your opinions! ^.^

Review please~~


	20. Nothing to do

Hey there! On time like promised! ^.^

Lots of thanks to Jestie Uchiha, YellowMittens and Aiko Tachibana for reviewing! You guys are awesome!

Like promised here's the next chapter, see it as some sort of Christmas present. Not that I care for Christmas but oh well, at least I don't have school.

Okay this chapter is pretty much just a filler (*shock*) so don't expect any sense in it. At least the first part is. The second part isn't completely one, depends on how one defines 'filler'...

That said, enjoy!

* * *

**Sins and Sunshine**

Chapter 20: Nothing to do

"Achoo!"

"Hey don't get sick before these exams end!" Nobu protested and moved few inches away from me like he was afraid that I could infect him.

I didn't feel sick at all, just a runny nose since two days ago when I sat on the roof in the cold for too long, it seems. Well, deserves me right, I guess.

We were sitting in the lounge of the tower. Ayano read a book from one of the many bookshelves in here while Nobu and I were playing some video games.

"Who would have thought that they had actually a game console in here!" I said in awe.

"And who would have thought you're this good in video games. Damn it!" Nobu cursed as I bet him in the car race game we were playing right now. (Not that anyone would know what these cars are but oh well...)

"Ha, I won!" I cheered nudging my teammate in the side. It was now 4:3 for me.

"Revenche!" he proclaimed and pushed the 'reset' button.

"Hey, what are you playing?" Kiba asked as he entered the room.

"A car race." I explained and concentrated to find a way to overtake Nobu.

"Cool, can it pl-"

"Darn!"

"Ha! In your face!" Nobu yelled and punched the air as he won.

"All or nothing?" I asked, determined to win this.

"You're so gonna lose this!" he answered grinning.

"Okay, the hardest route, 50 laps." I ordered him.

"You'll regret to have ever challenged me!"

After half an hour we were in the 45. lap and had a neck-and-neck-race. Meanwhile gathered quite some audience around us. Among them Kiba, Shino, Hinata, Shikamaru, Choji and Ino and three Sound-ninjas who looked like they wanted to kill some time.

"How about a little bet?" I suggested to Nobu.

"Okay. If I win you have to give me a kiss!"

"And if I win you have to run 20 lap around the tower. In your underwear!"

Nobu gulped but still agreed to it.

All my friends were rooting for me, only Ino was on Nobu's side since she couldn't stand me. Even the Oto-nin were betting amongst themselves on who'll win.

We were driving the last lap and were practically glued to the screen when the goal came in sight. We were still head-to-head and I was almost crushing my controller from pushing the button to hard. Till the last second one couldn't tell who'd win this match. We crossed the goal at almost the same time and the winner was shown.

"Woohoooo! Take that Nobu!" I shouted and pointed a finger at him after I jumped up from the ecstasy of winning.

"NOOO!" Nobu screamed and punched the ground with a crestfallen face. My friends were cheering with me (the stoic one less then the others) while the female Oto-nin got 5$ from each of her teammates.

"What do I hear? Youthful enthusiasm?" a voice shouted from near the door. As I looked at the direction of the voice, I saw the pure horror! A human-like creature with thick eyebrows, puddin-basin haircut and a green skintight spandex suit entered the room and made a thumps up with his shining teeth showing in a silly grin.

"Kyaah! Make it go away! Make it go away!" I squealed and hid behind Shikamaru who was the nearest person standing near me and turned now into my meat shield.

"What do you mean, youthful girl?" he asked with more teeth glittering.

"A monster! A green full body condom monster!" I yelled and hid even more behind Shikamaru.

"She's afraid of you, Lee." A girl with long brown hair next to the monster said. No wait, she was actually a he, the hair and the refined face got me confused.

"Somehow I can understand her but that was definitely exaggerated." a girl – and this time really a girl – stated.

"Why does she not like my youthfulness?" the monster called Lee asked glumly and sobbing and left the room with his comrades following him.

"He's gone." Shikamaru stated lazily.

"Yay!" I cheered jumping forth from my hiding place aka Shikamaru.

"Then we can do something different now." Nobu suggested with drops of sweat gathering on his forehead.

"Nuh-uh! Didn't you forget something?" I retorted with a mean grin.

"Please, have mercy!" he begged desperately.

"Forget that! Strip and run! Now!"

"I'll get back on you!" Nobu shouted while running around the tower in bunny boxershorts with all of us watching and laughing at him.

"Less talking, more running!" I called out to him and smirked contently. Never mess with a female gamer!

* * *

Two days later...

"Naruto-kun! Sasuke-kun!" I shouted when I saw my two friends (plus Pinky) walking into the tower.

"Minari-chan!" Naruto shouted and tackle-hugged me to the ground.

"Hey." Sasuke greeted with usual Uchiha-coolness.

"Don't ignore me!" Pinky nagged.

"Hey Pinky, what happened to your hair?" I asked pointing out her lack of long hair.

"I wanted to change my hairstyle. I think this way they suit me better." I boasted with a self-contented smile.

"You're right." I agreed "it makes your baby face more outstanding like this."

"Youuuuu..."

Sakura was about to go for my throat when Iruka-sensei came in.

"Hello, Iruka-sensei." I greeted him.

"Hello, Minari-chan. Can you tell the other teams that times up and they can go home now? We'll continue with the next part of the exam tomorrow morning." he said.

"Okay~" I sang and then opened the door to the lounge.

"Hey, guys! We can go home now! We'll continue tomorrow!" I shouted as loud as I could so that I was heard in every last part of the tower. As I turned around I was confronted with team 7 and Iruka holding their hands to their ears.

"Err... Oops?"

* * *

"And, how did you do?" I asked my old team when we were together at Ichiraku's ramen shop.

"Well, we had quite some trouble. There was this snake guy, who..." Naruto narrated while gulping down his ramen with soup spilling all over his face, which didn't look much appetizing, as you can imagine.

Sakura cast a concerned glance at Sasuke who in return ignored her and stubbornly glared at the counter. Something had happened, but what?

I leaned forward and looked at him, but when ours eyes met he quickly averted his gaze. This wasn't good. He was an Uchiha, he'd never avert his gaze. Return yeah, ignore okay, but never avert!

I leaned backwards again and gave him a soft smile.

"You don't have to tell me." I whispered so only he could hear. Pinky, who sat on his other side, noticed me saying something to him and instantly shot daggers with her eyes at me but I shrugged it off. Instead I listened to the blonde who happily narrated his heroic deeds back in the forest of death not paying attention if we were even listening.

Movement in the corner of my eye made me turn around. Sasuke slid off the stool and was now facing the empty and dimly lit street.

"Minari, follow me." he said in his typical cold tone. I nodded and got off the stool to stand beside him. Sakura who had watched us wanted to protest but Sasuke cut her off.

"You wait here. If the dope asks, we're back in a few minutes."

She opened her mouth but closed it again and nodded with uneasiness clearly written all over her face.

I wondered what all this meant but put it aside as I hurried after Sasuke who started to wander along the street.

For some time we were walking next to each other without one word spoken. Normally I'd enjoy the silence but here and there I darted a concerned gaze at him, his silence making me anxious.

Finally he came to a halt. We went quite some distance and were now standing under a street lamp of a crossroad that that radiated a soft yellow light. He still didn't say a word but kept starring at the light above us. Since I had nothing better to do I followed his gaze and noticed a little moth dancing around the bright light, flying against it again and again.

"Isn't it funny how moths get attracted to the light?" I said absent-mindedly. "Why aren't they happy with just staying in the light but try so hard to reach the centre?"

"Hn..."

"Like I already said, you don't to force yourself to tell me." I said with a serious face now directed to him. A hint of a smile crossed his lips but disappeared just as fast again before he turned his gaze at me. We looked in each others eyes, his dark orbs seemed to look right into my soul.

"You know of Orochimaru?" he suddenly began breaking the silence.

"Err huh? Oh yeah, he's one of the Sannin, right?" I answered trying to come to my senses again.

"We met him in the forest. He said, he can make me stronger."

"And what does he want from you?" I asked with a frown. I mean, why would someone who betrayed the village come and graciously offer his help without anything in return.

"I don't know." he answered honestly. Then he pulled on the collar of his shirt and leaned his head back. First I wondered why he would do this, then I noticed something on his neck. There were three little marks that reminded me of his Sharingan.

"What's that?"

"A curse mark he gave me." Sasuke explained and put his collar back in place to hide it once again.

"Sounds bad." I pondered.

"It can give me power."

"Then it sounds good."

"But when I use it it feels like it wants to take over my body."

"Well, that's bad."

Sasuke started to look at me again as if waiting for something. I cocked my head and thought about it.

"Do you really need him to get stronger?" I then asked. Seriously, it's not like he couldn't became stronger on his own or with the help of Kakashi-sensei or other Jonin.

"I don't know." he answered again. Seems like he also already thought about it this way.

"Then just wait what'll happen. It's a waste to bother about things one can't tell for sure. Wait until after the exams and I'm sure you'll get an answer." I suggested with a bright smile.

"Hn..."

"We should head back for now." I said and then we started to walk the same path back we came from.

On the way back it was now Sasuke's turn to constantly gaze at me. After some time I felt too uneasy and turned to ask him.

"Do I have something on my face?"

"...There's something on your mind." he stated and I looked at him in surprise before quickly averting my eyes. Suddenly that pebble on the road seemed interesting.

"Is it that obvious?"

"Hn."

Sighting I gazed to the night sky and watched the stars.

"How should I put it." I mumbled.

"I once told you a bit of my past, right?"

"About your parents." he answered.

"Yeah. Well, seems like I have to confront this part of my past and it'll probably take some time to sort things out." I explained with a bitter smile. The boy furrowed his brows.

"Those three from Suna." he deadpanned. I lowered my head again.

"Mhhmm... Oh look, we're back." I quickly added when I saw the ramen shop in front of us.

With a broad smile I hurried to Naruto and Pinky, Sasuke behind me.

"Sorry, we're late. Did you wait long?" I apologized as Naruto almost jumped to my neck.

"Minari-chan, where were you? You weren't even listening to my great stories!"

"There, there." I hummed patting the boy's back as I felt someone glaring daggers at me again.

"That was longer than just a few minutes." Pinky muttered impatiently stomping her foot on the ground.

"Don't you have anything to say?"

"Except for I don't have those perverted intentions you do, not really."

"W-What? I never-" she stuttered with a huge blush and lost for words. My grin just grew wider.

_Bullseye!_

* * *

Finished. Like I said just a filler. Well, next chapter will be more interesting since Gaara will be in there again. Somehow I really have the feeling that Minari turned out to be too much like a Mary-Sue... Have to change that when I rewrite it...

Aaaaanyway, please review and make this poor author happy! Review Please!


	21. Preliminaries

Hello and happy new year (since this is my first update this year)!

Thanks and cookies to Aiko Tachibana, Jestie Uchiha and sakuuzumaki753 for your reviews!

School starts tomorrow and since yesterday I always slept till midday... joy...

* * *

**Sins and Sunshine**

Chapter 21: Preliminaries

"Great, preliminaries..." Nobu grumbled, glaring at the guy who'd be the examiner for this round.

"Shouldn't you be happy about it? Since this way you get to fight more often." I suggested to cheer him up.

"Oh, you're right! Yeah, preliminaries!" he now cheered and went back to being a hyper battle maniac. Though, I couldn't understand why he was so keen on getting into fights. I'd prefer to avoid hard work and exhausting things... Why again did I choose to become a ninja?

The examiner spoke up and asked if someone wanted to quit beforehand. For a brief second I even thought about withdrawing but decided against it. Nobu would definitely haunt me if I did. So while waiting for this to go on I overheard Sakura trying to convince Sasuke to quit. I had to resist the urge to facepalm. He was an Uchiha, of course he would never ever in his life run away from a fight. She's a stalker- I mean fangirl and doesn't even know that? Pathetic. When she even threatened to spill this about the curse mark I rolled my eyes and shouted out to the coughing man in front of us who waited for us to make up our mind.

"Hey, as you can see no one wants to quit. So can we go on, please?"

"Hell, yeah! I want to fight!" Nobu yelled and backed me up, even thought this way I got more attention than I originally wanted.

The examiner coughed again and scanned us genin one last time before he sighted and called out to us.

"If there's really no one who wants to withdraw, then we'll start with the preliminaries."

"Yahoo!" Nobu yelled and I punched him in the ribs to make him shut up. Seriously, sometimes this guy is just pissing me off.

Then a plate on the wall move to the side and revealed a huge flat screen. I almost started to drool, when I imagined this giant screen in my living room. Just like a home cinema! But unfortunately I couldn't just take it home since it showed the pairs who were going to battle each other. Pity.

And the first pair was already selected. It was Nobu and some guy called Kabuto.

"Yeah! I'm first!" Nobu shouted and stepped to the front, eyeing the silver haired guy with glasses in front of him while we other were walking up the balcony that surrounded the arena. When all the non-combatants had left the battle ground the examiner commenced the fight.

"And... start!"

"I surrender." Kabuto said as soon as the examiner had spoken.

"What?" Nobu called out bewilderedly.

"Nobu wins!"

"Wait! I want to fight! Nooo, that's not fair!" he cried as he glumly walked up the stairs of the balkony, a dark cloud hovering over his head.

And then the next pair already got announced. It was Sasuke against some unimportant guy from Kabuto's team.

"Go, Sasuke-kun!" I cheered my friend on.

"Yeah! Sasuke-kun you can do it!" the two fangirls shouted in unison. A cold shower ran down my spine. Did I sound like a fangirl just now? Creepy!

Unfortunately from the beginning it was clear that the guy whose name doesn't interest me prevailed while Sasuke not only had to fight him but also the pain of his curse mark. Well, he could pin down his opponent with some cool judo hold – I didn't even know that he actually can do judo! - but the other guy drained Sasuke's chakra with his hand. Then he grabbed Sasuke's head with named hand and continued absorbing.

"Oh no, he drains his brain!" I said in mock horror.

"Not the brain, the chakra." Nobu corrected me, thinking that I actually meant what I said. And since this was the case I decided to play along.

"Then wouldn't it be more efficient to absorb it from the stomach where chakra gets manipulated? Nope, he's definitely draining his brains."

"And why should he want to do this?"

"That's because so many girls cheered for Sasuke and since he can't find any girlfriend he got envious and now drains his brain to find out why Sasuke's so popular and he's not." I explained with a serious face and Nobu widened his eyes in realization.

"So that's why..."

"Minari-chan. It's not nice to fool your comrades." Hatsuru-sensei said after mysteriously popping out of nowhere behind me.

"Sensei? Where have you been the whole time?" I asked him when I realized that he was the only teacher absent up until now.

"Well, I didn't feel like listening to all the talk before the matches so I just came late." he explained with a kind smile.

"I know what you mean but as a contestant I can't just skip." I said sadly and pouted.

"Don't worry. When you're a Jonin you can do that, too." he reassured me with a smile and patted my head. My eyes lightened up. Yay, privileges!

"Sasuke wins!" the examiner announced indifferently.

"Aww, now I missed the battle." I whined and the last thing I saw was the unconscious body of that unimportant guy that was carried out of the arena and Sasuke who disappeared together with Kakashi-sensei.

The next match was Shino versus Zaku Abumi, one of the Oto-nin.

First it looked like Zaku couldn't move his arms, but one was okay and he fired air out of a hole on his palm. Shino dodged and ordered his insects to surround him and then it resulted that Zaku was able to use both of his arms, but when he wanted to use that air shot again both arms went 'boom!' because Shino's insects blocked the holes. This way Shino won the fight.

After that was Kankuro's turn to fight another unimportant minor character. And since non of them was interesting enough to watch I just ignored them. Instead I leaned on the railing on the balcony and rested my head on my right hand while I glanced to the other side of the room where a certain redhead was located. When he noticed me I sent him a smile but he just coldly glared at me and looked away. My smile dropped and I continued to watch him with a bitter expression in my eyes. It really hurt to be treated by him like this and unconsciously I started to doubt the meaning of the music box he gave me the other day. Maybe he really hated me and just wanted to clear his debts or something.

"Kankuro wins!" the examiner shouted.

"Who cares?" I shot back. A bit too loud I guess since Kankuro's arrogance dropped and got replaces with a sour expression.

"No one cares for me." me mumbled sadly as he left the arena. Normally I'd now feel guilty for taking my chagrin out on others. But really, who cares for Kankuro?

The next pair was Ayano and Sakura.

"Good luck, Ayano-chan!" I shouted after her as she went down the stairs to the battle ground.

"And try not to kill her!" Nobu added with a happy face and got bewildered looks from others, including me.

The moment the examiner commenced the fight Ayano vanished and reappeared behind the pink haired girl to hit her with the side of her hand in the neck. Sakura fell to the ground unconscious and Ayano was announced as the winner.

"Ayano wins! The matches get shorter and shorter." the examiner said and mumbled the last part.

Sakura got carried back to the others and slowly woke up again.

"Did... Did I win?" she asked confusedly.

"You lost big-time! Not even two seconds did you-!" Naruto shouted laughing but was silent by a punch to the face from an irritated Sakura.

"Hey, forehead. How does it feel to lose without even putting up a fight?" Ino mocked her.

"Shut up, Ino-pig! You wouldn't even had hung on for a single second!"

"Nice, Ayano-chan! That was fast." I complimented my teammate who had already made her way back to us. She nodded and then motioned with her head to the screen that now showed mine and Ino's name.

"Oh, time for me to go. Wish me luck, guys." I said calmly and took the stairs down to the battle ground. There I faced a glaring Ino that shot daggers at me with her eyes. Oh, how I missed this I-hate-you-because-Sasuke-like-you-more-than-me-glare since I wasn't in the same team as Pinky anymore.

"Wait, a Takanaki?" Baki, the teacher of Gaara and his siblings, suddenly burst out. I glanced at the screen that said 'Takanaki Minari' and innerly cursed that they had to present my whole name to someone of Sunagakure but remained calm and shot the man a cold stare.

"If the screen says it then it must be true, right?"

"How can that be? I thought they were all..." he mumbled and bit his lower lip, staring at me with a sour expression. I laughed out and turned back to the blond girl in front of me. A bitter smile crossed my face.

_This day gets better and better..._

Then the fight started and Ino began with Taijutsu. We exchanged some punches but no one of us landed a heavy blow. Looked like we were pretty much at the same level in Taijutsu. We backed away from each other to go for a different tactic.

This time I took the initiative and threw two shuriken at the girl and ran towards her taking a kunai in each hand. Ino also used a kunai to block the shuriken but had to backflip when I slashed at her horizontally with my kunais. I didn't let her retreat so easily and kept slashing at her while she defended herself with her own kunai and tried to get some distance between us.

In the meantime Pinky was shouting some insults at Ino to piss her off. I really wondered how these two could be in any sort of a friendly relationship. Shikamaru told me that they were previously best friends but with the looks of it I really doubted that.

Ino now reached into the pouch on her leg to draw out a shuriken that she threw at me and I had to back away but it scraped me on my cheek.

She summoned a clone and they dashed toward me, one coming from the left the other from the right. When they reached me at the same time and slashed their weapon at my I jumped in the air and my kunai at each of them. The real Ino blocked it with her own while the clone disappeared. I used the chance and grapped her hand in which she held the knive and twisted it while I came to the ground again making the groaning in pain. She used the other hand to take the kunai and tried to stab me, so I had to let go of her arm and take some distance again. She rubbed her aching wrist and I frowned when I saw that she could still use her hand. I intended to break her wrist to prevent her from making any more hand seals but seems that I failed.

"You'll pay for that." she hissed and I picked up a kunai and shuriken that lay on the ground next to me. Unfortunately I didn't have an endless supply on weapons so I had to be careful.

"Hey Ino-Pig, you're not in any way better than me, you know?" Pinky spat with an arrogant grin.

"Shut up, forehead!"

"Your fault for spending all your time treating your hair instead of training!"

"Would you please shut up now? There's a fight going on!" I shot back since it's irritating to fight someone seriously who's constantly arguing with a third party. Can't they just quarrel when I'm not in the midst of fighting one of them?

"I have enough! Take that, forehead!" Ino screamed and I now expected her to throw something at Sakura but much to my surprise she didn't. No, instead she cut off her hair and threw it on the flow. The wind of her movement causing the hair strands to scatter around the whole floor.

"What the-" I mumbled then noticed that Ino got into a strange stance where she formed a trapezoid with her hands and stretched them towards me. I heard the Yamanaka-clan could transfer their mind into those of others and this way taking control of their body. May this was it?

Nervously I skip from one foot to the other. Maybe I can outrun this jutsu if I try hard enough.

"Hehehe, this is the end." Blondy said and chuckled eerily.

"Shintenshin no Jutsu!" The moment those words left the girl's mouth I sped up and ran to the side hoping this way I could escape her. And really, after I felt no change and saw Ino standing there with a hanging head I thought that I did it. To make sure if she was unconscious I drew closer but something prevented me to.

"What?" I called out as I noticed the strands of hair wrapped around my ankles and holding me on place.

"Hee, I got you." Ino grinned.

"So you faked it." I stated.

"Yeah and this time I'll definitely make you surrender. Now who's the useless one, forehead?" she shouted to her love rival, who didn't have any words left to retort.

"Bring it." I said and got ready for whatever may came now.

Again Ino called out the name of her technique and this time used it for real, since my vision went completely black.

_Thehe, you lost, Minari!_ Ino taunted inside my thoughts.

**Oh, you think so?**

_W-What the? Who are you?_ she stuttered with fear in her voice. It sounded like she faced Kumiho right now, but I couldn't tell since my vision was still black and I could only hear their voices.

**You little worm dared to intrude my realm. Don't think that won't have any consequences for you, **the Demon stated with a cold voice. After her saying this there was a huge invisible force that, just like a sound wave, spread inside my head and tossed Ino's mind out of mine and back to hers.

I could finally open my eyes again and saw Ino's bodyfalling backwards from the mental impact. I got on her knees and looked at me in fear while clrawling away to try to get more distance between us.

"W-What are you?" she whispered with a trembling voice.

"**Ignorant mortal fool.**" a voice that wasn't mine said through my mouth. In fear I realized that Kumiho took control of my body and all I could do was watch as she used my body to take a step towards the shaking girl.

_What are you doing, Kumiho? Give me back my body!_ I shouted at her inwardly while a numb feeling crept into my mind.

"**Not yet. First we have to teach her a lesson.**" she answered while an evil smirk appeared on my face. The numbness turning into a slightly stinging pain.

_No, we won't! Stop It! Now! _

* * *

Outside POV (because I can)...

"**You can't stop me like this.**" The brown-haired girl called out with a strange voice too deep for her young age.

"What's with her?"

"Why is she talking to herself?"

"What's with that creepy voice?" the spectators mumbled and became nervous from the progress of this fight.

"I... I give up!" Ino stuttered and stumbled back to the stairs to the hopefully save balcony.

"Then... Minari wins... I guess..." the examiner mumbled, not sure how to deal with this kind of situation.

"**Aw, now she espaced.**" Minari's dark voice sighted in an cooing voice.

"Stop it!" her normal voice suddenly shouted out.

"**Not yet.**"

"Go away!"

The girl clawed her fingernails into her arms and crouched down shivering like all the warmth of her body was suddenly gone.

"**You should stop that, or-**"

She threw her head into the neck and with her eyes and mouth wide open she released a sharp scream.

"Someone has to stop her!" Baki growled already preparing for the worst. But nobody paid attention to him but stared at the girl in the middle of the arena.

She threw her body from one side to the other and screamed non-stop. Everybody watched in horror as she lay on the ground shaking violently and screaming her mind to the heavens. Since no one dared to intervene this continued up to ten minutes until the cries slowly stopped and the girl no lay motionless on the floor, a flat breathing indicating that she was still alive.

"Minari-chan!" Naruto shouted and wanted to run to her side, but Hatsuru already kneeled next to her examining her body. Her arms were bleeding on the place where she dug her fingernails into the flesh and on some place of her body appeared light burn marks. He raised the lid of her left eye and saw that her pupils weren't moving in the light of the hall.

"She's unconscious." he stated and lifted her from the ground.

"I'll get her to the hospital." he announced and disappeared with the girl in his arms.

"Minari-chan..." Naruto mumbled as he watched the Jonin carrying her off.

"That was crazy." Kiba stated aloud and made some people nod in agreement.

"Did you fell that chakra? Enormous." Nobu said with an unusual serious face to his teammate Ayano.

"..." she glared at the Jonin from Sunagakura who gazed scornfully after the unconscious girl.

* * *

Whoop, finished! I should already be in bed, though... Stupid school! x_x

Something I noticed: chapter 55 of the manga the first page, Sasuke has a monologue with his younger self. He talking like 'all this happened because you're so weak' and 'you let them die' and 'all you did was watch'. Now there I thought about two things that weren't quite right there. 1) How in the world could a little brat who wasn't even Genin defeat his brother who was a prodigy and even stronger than Anbu-level? And 2) Even if that would make sense (which it doesn't in my eyes. Just how much stronger did he want to be as a 6 year old or whatever?), how in the world would he be able to stop his brother when at the time he came back everyone was already dead? He can't save dead persons and he didn't watch them die...

That's pretty much all I wanted to say. Hope you enjoyed the chapter and good night! ^.^


	22. Hospital Time

Hallo~! Lots of thanks to indescribable music, Jestie Uchiha and Akatsukifreak for reviewing! Love you guys!

Okay I'm SOOO sorry for not updating for such a long time! But unfortunately this will keep on until June after I finished my finals... Yeah stupid school hindering me from writing anything.

Guess another reason for the delay is that I totally changed the concept for this chapter and had to think up the whole thing again! Well at least I finished and could finally manage to tell you guys about my current situation of not updating. I hope you'll forgive me... *sobs and kneels down to apologize*

Now to come to an end, here's the totally late chapter... enjoy!

* * *

**Sins and Sunshine**

Chapter 22: Hospital Time

When I woke up again I found myself in a hospital room. Three days had past since then and neither was I allowed to leave nor was anybody visiting me. I don't know what happened after I passed out and nobody cared to enlighten me about it.

I was lying in my unusual comfy hospital bed, had the usual hospital gown on and saw out of the big hospital window just to look at a massive white wall. Great, I didn't even have a good view to let the time pass, but instead was stuck in this white empty room to stare at the wall of another building of this hospital complex.

I was afraid, I was anxious and worst of all, I was bored to death! My only distraction was the nurse that would come from time to time to check on me. But after letting out all my loneliness on her, meaning talking about absolutely meaningless things with like 20 words per second, she decided to make her visits shorter and more seldom every time, which again made me talk more and more to her. It was a vicious circle and the poor nurse was in the midst of it. Blame the no-visitors-and-no-leaving-the-room-rule!

So like I said, here I was in this boring as hell prison-like room and tried to entertain myself without going insane. To do so I stared at the fly that sat across me on the metal frame of my bed and lazily returned my stare. It really was, I swear!

So after intently staring at the insect I decided to take the first step and name it... Franc. I shall name it Franc. Now to the next step: approaching the target.

"Hello, Franc.", I said with a friendly smile and held a hand out to Franc for him to shake it. Or to hop on it since he couldn't probably shake it without having hands, silly me.

Well, his response was flying away the moment I held my hand out, buzzing trough out the whole room and landing in the upper corner farthest away from my.

"Hey, that's mean, Franc.", I whined and pouted.

… I was pouting because of a fly... Yep, so much for not going insane...

I jumped as the door to the room suddenly got opened. I dramatically backed away to the corner of my bed with a hand on my heart, the other holding out as to keep away whoever was about to enter.

I stopped my act as I saw the hokage entering with two Anbu following and stand to each side of him as he stopped in front of my hospital bed. I wore his usual robe and had his usual nice-old-man-smile which let me feel at ease and return the smile.

"Hello, Minari. How are you feeling?"

Well, to be honest, I was bored to death, every inch of my skin was burning, I still had trouble to breathe normally and I started talking to a puny little insect. But apart from that...

"I'm fine, thank you." I answered politely. The old man nodded and observed me while I sat on the bed cross-legged and looked down on my hands. It was never a good sign to have a private talk with the hokage and two giants as bodyguards next to him. Every other person would have looked like some drug lord, but this nice old man looked more like a grandpa that by chance stood next to two doormen.

"Are you worried?" he mused already knowing the answer since I didn't even try to hide it. I nodded nonetheless.

"Because of what happened at the preliminaries?"

Again a nod.

"Well, you don't have to be. We knew since the beginning that this could happen."

surprised I looked up at him with confusion in my eyes.

"You knew?"

Now it was the hokage's turn to nod, before he answered with a smug smile.

"We made a check-up on your past the day you asked for permission to stay in this village."

I deadpanned. Of course they would do that, why could I have not thought of that? But that confused me all the more.

"Then why did you...?"

"Because I know just how hard it is for someone like you to be accepted by others. We already have a similar case like yours so it didn't really matter. And it was surprising that you didn't even use a pseudonym when you introduced yourself to me."

With a sheepish smile I scratched the back of my head.

"Well, I don't like the idea of lying to everyone, including myself. Especially when I made so many friends."

The man laughed and gave me a reassuring smile.

"Well, don't worry about it, it was just the right thing to do. And I'm surprised how well you did the time you were here. I heard this demon of yours is quite a handful."

I still smiled and simply nodded but hearing the word 'demon' gave me a little sting to the heart. Maybe because I felt a bit sorry for Kumiho being treated like something evil. Well, according to my family she was but somehow I couldn't really think of her like that...

"Now for the reason I visited you today." the hokage began and regained my attention back.

"Since we didn't want to let your case be known, all attendants were told that you suffered from a case of schizophrenia and this was what Ino saw, when she entered your mind."

I didn't know what to respond. I was grateful that they were considerate enough to keep my secret, but on the other hand I was now a complete freak. But I didn't have enough time to think about it since the man continued with his explanation.

"The problem was the Jonin from Sunagakure. It seemed that he recognized you and according to our information it wouldn't look good for you then. In the worst case Sunagakure could threat us to hand you over or otherwise start a war.

My face dropped and I blankly stared at him. Were they planning to send me to my certain death? Or maybe they were trying to tell me that I should disappear from this village? Either way I would be screwed. Sadly I watched the old man as he went on.

"But as long as it stays like it is, we won't do anything. Well, one Anbu will stay on guard in front of your house in case they try to assassinate you and even though you officially won the match against Ino, you'll get disqualified from the last test. We can't let you be recognized be the Kazekage who is going to attend the battles."

It took me quite some time to digest everything he just said. So all in all it means that I won't get thrown out of the village nor get sent into my certain death, instead they even gave commands to protect me?

Tears stung in my eyes and heavy sobs came out of my throat as I threw my arms around the hokage's neck and almost knocked him over.

"!" I cried out in joy and the old man smiled and patted my back.

After I calmed down a bit I quickly let go and hopped back on my bed, wiping the last teardrops out of the corners of my eyes.

"Now that you know the official story, we can finally tell your friends that you woke up so that they can finally visit you." he stated and turned to leave but I stopped him.

"Uhh, I have a question." I asked shyly and saw as he turned to me with a raised brow.

"Was is it, dear?"

"Uhh, for how long was I asleep?"

"About two weeks." he answered with a smile and left the room, one Anbu in front of him, the other one following and closing the door behind him.

I was left dumbfounded. Two weeks? Such a long time, wow! Good thing the first thing I did after I was able to move again, I took a shower. I didn't even want know how bad I had smelled back then.

The next problem was, from now on I had to act like I was completely crazy. Not slightly crazy like I normally did, but completely insane, like some maniac! On the other hand, if they believed the story about me being schizophrenic it would also mean that I acted crazy enough all along to convince them this easily. Now should I be happy or sad? Let's just be happy, it's better than being depressed anyway.

* * *

The next day...

"When can I go home?" I asked the doctor who was checking me through.

"Don't worry, miss. According to your results, in a few days we can discharge you." he answered and looked one last time at my file before opening the door to leave.

"Oh, and miss" he added "some of your friends are here to visit you."

A huge smile grew on my face. Finally, someone thought about me!

I brushed with my hands through my hair to make it look less messy and patiently sat on my bed and waited for my friend. But since I wasn't really patient I kept hopping up and down till the door got timidly shoved open and a blond head was peaking inside.

"Naruto-kun!" I shouted hopped off the bed and tackle-hugged him to the ground.

"Mina-chan! Sorry that we're this late." he apologized with a grin and I ruffled his hair.

"Looks like you're better now." I heard someone say and looked up to see Shikamaru standing in the doorway, unable to get in because Naruto and I were blocking the way.

"Yep. I even can go home in a few days." I answered grinning, then got off the blonde and reached him a hand to help him up.

"We heard that you were awake so we came to visit you." he declared and hopped on the bed next to me just when I sat down myself.

"That's great, I was so bored! I even started talking to a fly since I had no one to talk to." I pouted and curiously watched their reactions. They didn't look different than usual. Was I really always this crazy?

"Then why didn't you talk to the nurse?" the blonde suggested.

"I did. But I annoyed her so much that she refused to check on me anymore."

Yes, now I finally got my strange looks! Great to know that I can still freak out people. Would be boring otherwise.

"Anyway, tell me, how did the preliminaries go?"

"Believe it or not, but I made it!" Naruto declared happily and I congratulated him while patting his head.

"Shikamaru also did it." he then said and pointed at the lazy boy that was leaning against the wall.

"Wow, Shika-kun, congrats!" I said with a big smile. He just mumbled a "troublesome" as a response.

"But too bad that they disqualified you for he third test, Minari-chan." Naruto whined and looked like he really felt sorry for me. I gave him a smile and ruffled his blonde hair.

"That's okay. Less trouble for me and I can cheer on all of you."

"But I can't understand why they'd disqualify you just because of your... circumstances." He hesitated for a moment as if thinking carefully of what to call it. I needed a brief moment to understand what he meant but then I remembered.

_Ohhh, the schizophrenia thing..._

I had to force a smile back on my face and tried to sound not too irritated about my made-up illness.

"Don't worry about it. Maybe it's for the best." I answered stiffly.

"Well, we have to go now. We still want to visit Lee, you know." Naruto explained and waved goodbye, Shikamaru doing the same and followed the blonde outside. I said goodbye and watched them leave. Then After the door closed I felt back into the hospital pillow and let out a sight.

_Great, now I'm really just some messed up freak._

**But maybe it's for the best this way**, Kumiho suggested. I raised an eyebrow at her comment.

_How so?_

**Well now you have at least an excuse when you're answering loudly to me again.**

_If you didn't piss me off all the time I wouldn't need one. And anyway, if you hadn't done these crazy things back then, I wouldn't be in this mess now!_

**Was it my fault that this low-life tried to enter my realm?**

"It was your fault for trying to take over my body to kill her!"

**And again you did it...** Kumiho sighted like a grown-up at a little child that knocked the food bowl over.

I growled at her and crossed my arms pouting. Just in this moment I heard the door falling in its angles and my head darted into to the direction of the sound. My mouth fell open of what I saw. A certain redhead stood there his cold eyes observing me and sand blocking the door as if he didn't want anyone to interrupt him in whatever he was here for.

I quickly shut my mouth and began observing him as well. He looked like always, emotionless and cold, sand clouds surrounded him like stirred up dust. Curiosity got the better of me so I decided to make the first step.

"Gaara! How nice of you to visit me." I chirped happily with a big smile and inwardly hoped that he'd respond. But he stayed silent.

"Why are you here?" I then asked confused and worried at the same time.

"... I wanted to finish my battle." he answered after some time of more silence. I inwardly heaved a sight of relief. So he was willing to talk to me at least.

"You mean the battle from the preliminaries? I thought they were finished?"

"Not mine."

"So you finished it now?" I asked anxiously. This didn't sound right. I didn't even want to think about what he meant with finishing a battle.

"No." he answered briefly, his face still not showing any emotion. Now I really got confused.

"Why not?"

"..."

So he wasn't going to tell me, I thought and looked down to my hands. My fingers were intertwined and I slightly rocked them back and forth.

"Are you in the next test?" I then asked after the silence got too hard to take and looked up only to see that he got few steps closer to me. I turned around to sit normally on the bed with my feet swaying back and forth.

"Yes..."

"Congratulation, I knew you'd do it! Too bad I couldn't watch your fight." I said and scratched the back my head with a sheepish grin.

"Yeah..." he answered briefly and I noticed that he now stood right before my. If my reached out my hand I would be able to pat his head. But I didn't. Don't get me wrong, I _would_ do it if just the whole situation wasn't so awkward right now.

"To whom did you talk just now?" he suddenly asked and left me dumbfounded. Did he hear my remark to Kumiho. I inwardly growled at the demon and fiddled with my fingers.

"Uhm, it's because... of my... special circumstances." I explained hesitantly and could almost laugh as I used to call it the way Naruto did.

"Don't lie to me." he retorted coldly and made a shiver running down my spine. I looked up to him to see something threatening in his eyes. I opened my mouth to say something but was cut off by him.

"That chakra was the same like back then in Suna when they said you died. Schizophrenia can't do that."

My eyes widened in surprise. I wasn't ready for that. Now I had two choices. Either talking my way out of it or plainly telling him the truth. But since I couldn't come up with a reasonable lie, it was best to stick with the truth. I sighted and gave him a small smile.

"I'm sorry, I didn't want to lie to you. This story is to cover something up that can't be found out, especially not from Suna."

Gaara frowned but stayed silent to let me continue.

"You know, the day my house burned down and my parents burned in it. On this day we were attacked by Anbu that were ordered to execute us."

His frowned got deeper as he spoke.

"Why would they do that?"

"Because they found out that inside of me a demon was sealed, that my clan had protected since centuries. It seems the elders feared that we could plan a coup d'etat or something and decided to get rid of us. I had to flee and hide to prevent them from finding out that I had survived." I finished and fixated my eyes on Gaara to study his reaction.

First he widened his eyes in surprise, then something like understanding reflected in his eyes and he nodded in silence. I hesitantly reached out my hand to touch his arm and quickly retreated as he backed away.

"Gaara?" I asked worriedly. Would he hate me now that he knows the truth? Would he hate me for lying to him all these years?

"You shouldn't touch me." he said quietly. I looked at him in confusion.

"Shukaku tells me to kill you. So you should stay away from me."

My eyes widened in understanding. So this was his problem? Shukaku? Then maybe he didn't really hate me.

"Is this the reason why you came here today?" I asked hesitantly. He nodded, his blue eyes locked with mine.

"Did Shukaku also tell you to kill the person you fought at the preliminaries?" Again a nod.

"Do you still hate me?"

His eyes widened, in surprise or confusion I couldn't tell. His silence made me uneasy and I felt tears gathering in my eyes ready to come out any moment, till Gaara's head slowly moved from right to left and back. He shook his head and averted his eyes. A huge smile found its way back on my face. So he didn't hate me any more! I had this enormous urge to bounce up and down in happiness and reached out to hug him tightly but stopped midway. Shyly I sat back down and looked to the side, a pink tinge decorating my cheeks.

"I'm s-"

I got interrupted in mid-sentence as the door got smashed open and an Anbu came in with weapons ready to attack. My head spun back to Gaara but all I could see was a small amount of sand swirling in the air on the place where the boy stood moments ago. I kept a smile on my face as I watched the Anbu scanning the room, then putting away his swords and kneeling before me.

"I'm sorry, Takanaki-san. I was just assigned my order to protect you and the enemy took this chance to come at you. This fault of mine is unforgivable and I-"

I sniggered at his way of speaking and cut him off with a waving motion of my hand.

"It's okay. Nothing happened, don't worry."

The man nodded and then vanished. I looked out of the viewless window with a content smile. With this security I won't able to see Gaara that much from now on but at least we now made up. And who knows, maybe some day we could go back to be friends again...

* * *

Finished! And it's even longer than originally intended! Hope that'll make up a bit for my long absence... I'll still try to find time to write but I can't promise that, please forgive me...

Review are still very appreciated and help me always getting reminded of my stories. So review pwease~~~! ^.^


	23. The finals

Hey guys! I know it's been a while since I last updated, about... holy cow! Over a year! I feel ashamed... But you know, life's been a bitch and I stopped writing completely for that time. Life's still a bitch now but I found back to my beloved stories so, yeah. Yay!

To tell the truth, I didn't even plan on updating this story. I solely wanted to focus on my second story since this story won't come to an end that soon. But then my conscience wouldn't stop nagging on me so in the end I actually wrote this!

I also planned on completely rewrite this story since Minari got a lil' bit too Mary-sue-ish but I'm really lazy right now and postpone that till I find some motivation. It's only the first few chapters that are going to chance, too, so I guess it's alright to just continue like that.

Enough babbling on my part, now enjoy!

* * *

**Sins and Sunshine**

Chapter 23: The finals

"Hey, Hinata-chan, Minari-chan, over here!" Kiba yelled as he spotted the Hyuga girl and me walking down the stairs looking for good seats to watch the upcoming fights. They were held in a gigantic stadion and I was amazed at the masses of people in here and slightly wondered why I never noticed this enormous building inside Konoha before... Blame my inattentiveness!

"Hey Kiba-kun! Thanks for the seats." I greeted my dog-loving friend and patted Akamaru's head after I squeezed trough the already sitting people to flop down next to my buddy. With the other hand I pulled Hinata behind me who was slightly nervous because of all the people who were bumping into her and she quickly took the seat next to me.

"T-Thank you, Kiba." she mumbled with a sweet smile on her face that made my heart skip a beat. Aww, she was just too cute to be true!

The last few weeks were pretty boring for me since almost all of my friends were out training for the finals. Even Shikamaru! Though it was more like his father forced him to but still. So I spent most of my time with Hinata, Kiba and sometimes Choji. And I got pretty close with Hinata, being my only girl friend and all. Even though she's really shy, when you get to know her it's quite fun to hang out with her. She's so adorable and kind, how could you not like her? Too bad that Naruto was too dense to notice her feelings, they would make such a cute couple!

"Uh, M-Minari-chan?" Hinata stuttered worriedly. Only now I noticed that I kept staring at her with my cheek resting in my palm for the past few minutes.

"Huh? Uh, sorry. I was just thinking and all." I explained smiling sheepishly and scratching the back of my head then turned to Kiba.

"So what did we miss?"

"Nothing really. They just stand down there so that all the big bosses can observe them. I guess for betting and all. I'm almost happy that I don't have to stand down there." he explained staring nervously down to the battleground.

_Never knew he had stage fright,_ I thought and then followed his gaze. The participating genin were all standing in the middle of the field posing for the people. On the grand stand were many daimyo observing them and debating intensely among themselves while maids kept running around between them serving booze and snacks.

"I also want snacks" I muttered while glaring at them then saw back down to the posing genin.

My gaze fell on Gaara who was glaring at no one in particular and I couldn't help but sight as I watched him. Since this one time in the hospital I didn't get the chance to see him again let alone talk to him. Every time when I was on the streets and he was somewhere close, the Anbu assigned to protect me appeared and ordered me politely but firmly to go the opposite direction. It was sad but it was for my own safety so I had to accept it.

While I kept staring at the redhead our eyes met and I smiled at him while he just glared back and then turned away. I felt a slight sting in my heart and sighted a bit hurt from his harsh reaction but could I blame him? After all I had lied to him and then ignored him for the past few weeks. Even though I didn't intend to, it didn't change the fact that I did.

I forced myself to look away and saw Nobu standing there with a broad grin decorating his tanned face. When he noticed me he winked at me and I playfully stuck my tongue out to him and then giggled as Ayano, standing next to him, rolled her eyes from our childish behaviour.

As I observed the rest of the group I noticed some guys missing...

"Hey, where're Naruto and Sasuke?" I asked wondering how they could be late on such an important event. On the other hand if it was me it wouldn't be any different since I always overslept on important occasions, but still.

"Dunno, didn't see them yet." Kiba replied only now noticing their absence.

"I-I hope Naruto's a-alright." Hinata mumbled worried for the blonde with a slight pink tinge on her cheeks.

"Don't worry Hinata-chan" I consulted her with a grin and patted her back. "He'll definitely get here on time and knowing him he'll make some flashy entrance."

She giggled and a small smile rested on her lips as she watched the entrance. And like on cue a certain blonde came running in screaming like crazy and being chased by a horde of bulls. Lucky for him some chunin at the entrance stopped them though having a hard time doing so. It was bulls after all!

"See? What did I tell you?" I laughed out and winked at Hinata as she gave Naruto a loving smile.

"Ha! Now I'm really relieved that I don't have to be down there!" Kiba blurted out laughing and I looked down to see what he meant. All the people were now staring at Naruto and Shikamaru when he started talking to him.

_Way to do things, Naruto,_ I thought an amused grin plastered on my face.

Then finally the Hokage started with his speech to announce the beginning of the matches. There I noticed for the first time a certain person sitting next to the Hokage.

"Hey Kiba, is that the Kazekage?" I asked the boy to confirm my worries. He looked at me then to the direction of the Kages.

"Uh, I guess? It's pretty rare to see a Kage from another country here in Konoha." he mused and I frowned at that. For once that Kiba was actually acting somewhat mature and actually said something that made sense! Who are you and hat did you do to Kiba?!

"Or maybe that's an imposter who's trying to assassinate the Hokage." he added laughing like the idiot I knew. I joined his laugher. As if that would ever happen!

The Hokage's speech ended and an examiner entered the stage explaining the rules and then showed us the chart of who would fight who. Curiously I read the names. It was the first time that I found out the battle pairings and these bugged me for days.

First were Naruto and Neji, then Sasuke and Gaara, Kankuro and Nobu, Shikamaru and Temari and the last battle of the first round were Shino versus Ayame.

"Sasuke's first fight is against Gaara? That one will surely get intense." I said in awe. They both were formidable shinobi so this battle was bound to reach epic dimensions.

"Ha, I'd kick both their asses if I were down there!" Kiba boasted grinning like an idiot.

"You mean if you wouldn't have lost against Naruto who was the drop dead of class?" I mocked and silenced his laughter.

"That was tough luck. Against this Neji he'll lose anyway."

* * *

"Naruto-kun, you did it!" I shouted down to the victorious boy and applauded together with Hinata. Then I turned to Kiba with a triumphant smile and held a hand out to him. He grumbled something that sounded like "Who would have thought that he could actually win against that Hyuga prodigy." and handed me 10 dollars.

"Oh beloved bet money." I coed and rubbed the banknote against my face.

"Yeah you're good at bets, we know, so stop it." Kiba mumbled huffily because he lost his last money on this bet.

"You're just sulking because you can't buy new hentai magazines." I teased him waving the money in front of his face. His cheeks turned bright red as he started making excuses, making Hinata and me laugh.

"Oh look, the next fight!" he shouted to change the topic, which was a success since my eyes shot down to the arena. Unfortunately for him the only battle that was going on was some random ninja whispering indecent things to the examiner. Okay, maybe that weren't indecent things since after the ninja vanished the examiner announced that Sasuke and Gaara's fight would be postponed, but some yaoi fans among you certainly had some perverted fantasies now. Naughty you!

**'Who are you talking to?'** Kumiho asked confusedly inside my mind. Poor her being stuck inside my messed up head.

_'Some random mind reading strangers that found my thoughts amusing and perhaps even were yaoi fans._' I explained logically while grinning idiotically which was the only feature visible to my friends that told them I was probably thinking about something stupid.

"Nooooooooo!" echoed a familiar voice throughout the coliseum.

"What? Did Nobu's opponent surrender before the battle even started?" I asked quickly after getting out of my musings.

"Yeah. Didn't you pay attention? Kaknuro forfeited just now." Kiba explained. I shrugged my shoulders.

"Naah, I was daydreaming. But Nobu's screaming gives it all away."

"Why do I also get the quitters?!" the battle maniac continued screaming.

"So, who do you think will win in the next battle?" Kiba asked with a gleam in his eye. Seems like he wanted to try to win his money back...

"You mean if Shikamaru won't quit halfway?" I retorted with a cocked eyebrow.

"Not even Shikamaru will be that lazy." he said laughing.

"Oh I'm pretty sure he will. He has a reputation to lose after all." I replied winking.

"Wanna bet on it?" Kiba challenged me.

"Do you even have anything left you can wager with?"

"Yeah. Well... No." he admitted.

"But I will clean your apartment for a whole week, if I lose." he quickly offered.

"Deal!"

And with a handshake the poor boy sealed his fate.

* * *

"Nooooo!" Kiba screamed as Shikamaru forfeited. At the very end of the battle. When he had already won. And Kiba thought he finally got his money back.

"I have a cleaning slave!" I cheered and happily hopped up and down while clapping my hands.

"So the next battle is Shino versus that Ayame, right?" Kiba asked, fire burning in his eyes. Poor Kiba doesn't see that he can't win against me when making bets.

"L-Look." Hinata said quietly and pointed into the arena.

There were Leaves swirling unnaturally on one place before they revealed two figure standing there. Two familiar figures.

"About time he appears." Kiba exclaimed at the sight of Sasuke Uchiha standing in the ring next to his teacher, Kakashi Hatake.

The crowd started applauding and cheering. The long-awaited epic battle between the last survivor of the Uchiha clan and the monster of Suna would finally start!

"Sasuke's hair got longer." I mused since that was the most important fact, in my opinion at least.


	24. The invasion

Hey there! I'm still alive and updating!

Thanks for all those lovely reviews I recieved! They were the main reason I updated this fast. But unfortunately I can't promise anything for later chapters since the creative part of my brain starts to fail again...

Anyway! If you want leave me a review and apart from that, enjoy!

* * *

**Sins and Sunshine**

Chapter 24: The invasion

The highlight of the day would finally start. The battle between Sasuke and Gaara was the most anticipated battle of the chunin exams since years and for a about a third of the spectators the sole reason to actually watch the fights. Poor other contestants must feel so unloved now.

The audience was bubbling over with excitement. They were shouting and cheering, exclaiming their personal favourites, jumping out of their seats. The names of the two boys in the ring echoed through the arena. And even I couldn't hold back my excitement any longer.

"Go, Sasuke-kun! Go Gaara!" I shouted, my hands forming to a cone in front of my mouth.

"You can't cheer for both, you know?" Kiba complained. Why that bothered him so much, I didn't know.

"Why not?" I asked.

"Because they are opponents. Why would you want to cheer for that Suna kid anyway?" he asked curiously.

"Because he was my best friend when I was still living in Suna." I explained a goofy smile on my face. No need to tell him that our friendship wasn't in its best condition right now. He'd just start gossiping like a teenage girl.

Anyway. After I shouted their names, they both stared at my general direction. Then they continued glaring at each other even more intense than before. If someone stood between them in that exact moment they would have definitely combusted!

The proctor announced the start of the fight and hurriedly jumped out of their way. Who could blame him, he was about to fall victim to the boys' deathglares of ultimate death, doom and destruction.

Most of the fight consisted of Sasuke trying to outrun Gaara's sand defense and to my great surprise he was actually able to. He was fast, really fast. Kakashi-sensei trained him well. Why didn't he train us more often? Stupid teacher, being too lazy...

Sasuke managed to land some blows on Gaara but keeping up this incredible speed seemed to drain his stamina. So after a few minutes they both were already panting heavily of exhaustion.

Gaara then shut himself in a sand cocoon and Sasuke tried to punch him in the face but was too slow.

Instead he ran up the arena wall and formed some hand seals. Blue lightning-like chakra gathered in his right hand and emitted a loud noise similar to thousands of birds screaming. This jutsu oddly reminded me of the one Kakashi-sensei used back in the Land of Waves.

Then he began to run down the wall, the concrete breaking from the force of the chakra in his hand. At high speed he ran head on towards the sand cocoon and stabbed it with his arm as if it was a sword.

The seconds felt like an eternity and complete silence covered the stadium. Then Gaara's scream filled the air as it seemed that Sasuke's attack was successful. He then tried to pull out his arm but couldn't. He finally broke out after using his lightning chakra again and we could clearly see some sort of deranged monster arm hold onto the boy.

'_Shukaku?_' I thought nervously. This didn't look good.

The cocoon broke and released the redhead who held his bleeding shoulder.

_'That's probably the first time he sees his own blood.'_ I mused.

"**Be careful. Things are getting into motion.**" Kumiho warned in my mind.

Confused I looked around to see was she was talking about.

People on the stands started falling asleep, only some ninjas staying awake while all made the same hand sign. As I, too, got sleepy I finally got the hint and quickly released the genjutsu that was cast on us.

Hinata to my left did the same, but Kiba wasn't that quick. I looked over at the boy who was snoring like the idiot he was.

I watched him silently, then hit him on the head. Nothing happened except for a bump that now grew on his head.

"He's out cold." I deadpanned.

"W-We should wake him." Hinata suggested nervously.

"That would be a bad idea." I retorted and pointed at the ninja that were streaming into the arena and started attacking every shinobi that was awake.

"We're under attack. Kiba would definitely want to fight too. I don't want that idiot to die yet." I explained with a forced grin.

Hinata nodded, knowing exactly what I meant.

"Hinata-chan, just act like you're asleep and you should be safe." I told her with a serious face. She nodded then looked up to me concern in her eyes.

"W-What about you?"

My gaze wandered into the arena. The sand-siblings were fleeing, Temari and Kankuro carrying Gaara. Sasuke quickly followed after them.

"I have to help an old friend." I replied and turned to go after them. But just as I took a step forward a shadow appeared behind me.

"You're going nowhere." the figure said and I turned around to see the sand-team's jonin instructor Baki behind me, a kunai in his hand. Just as he wanted to slash my throat, another shadow appeared. A hand caught the jonin's arm just as the weapon was mere millimeters away from my throat.

"You think I would let you kill my student so easily?"

"Hatsuru-sensei!" I cried out in relief. I really thought I was done for!

"You don't know anything. She's dangerous! If I don't kill her now, you will all regret it!" Baki roared and slashed at the man. Hatsuru retreated and I followed suit hiding behind my substitute-teacher.

"Minari. You and your little friend should go hide. Don't worry I told Nobu and Ayano to protect you. Those shinobi from Suna won't hurt you."

I smiled thankfully at the man, then took Hinata's hand and together with her we fled into the inside of the building.

After a few turns we found an empty storage room. There I shoved the girl into a locker where the swabs where kept.

"Hide here."

"Y-You, too." she pleaded but I shook my head.

"I have to go. And don't worry about me. My teammates are strong, they'll protect me."

After that I quickly made my way out of the building and to the direction where I saw Sasuke and Gaara disappear to. Hopefully Nobu and Ayano would soon catch up to me. With all those Suna-nins around me I'd be screwed if they discover me!

I ran through the streets to avoid the enemies that were fighting Konoha-nins on the rooftops. I also noticed Oto-nins fighting our forces. Looked like Suna and Oto were allies... Yep, we're screwed!

I dashed around the corner but quickly came to a halt as two Suna-nins were standing right in front of me.

"Uhhhh 'sup?"

"That's the Takanaki. Kill her!" they roared and quickly followed after me as I turned on my heels and ran in the opposite direction.

I concentrated chakra in my feet to get quicker and dodged the weapons they were throwing at me. Turning into a alley to escape their attacks I soon found out I made a big escape as I ran into a group of three more shinobi from Suna.

"Kill the Takanaki!" yelled my pursuers from behind me, as they caught up to me.

"Oh great." I grumbled and dived trough the broken down entrance of the building beside me, as they lunged at me. I took a kunai with an explosive tag on it out of my pouch – good thing I happened to bring my weapons with me today – and threw it at the entrance to block their way in with the following explosion. Unfortunately the pressure flung me through the whole room and against the opposing wall.

"Outch!" I rubbed my hurting head and found some blood on my fingers. Just great, I hope that doesn't have to get stitched...

Unfortunately my little explosion didn't help as much as I hoped, since even though the doorway was blocked with rubble, a giant hole now decorated the wall next to the entrance.

"You little..." one of the Suna-nins growled as he entered through the hole. Blood was running down his face so my little explosion wasn't as useless as I thought. Yeah, let's blow up all the bad guys!

I pulled myself up from the ground and leaned against the wall. I felt dizzy and couldn't stand straight not to mention run away.

The ninja made another step towards me but suddenly a blur broke through the wall on the side and rammed into the man, ramming him into the opposing wall, the only one that still remained intact, and created yet another hole. The owner of this building is so gonna kill us!

"You should protect the village, not help destroying it, Minari-chan!" a familiar voice lectured me. A grin grew wide on my faced as I identified the blur that saved me just now.

"Shut up, Nobu. You just destroyed two walls, so you're one wall ahead."

The boy straightened himself and smirked as his steel fist turned back to normal.

"You didn't see the building on the other side of the street yet. Your little explosive tag did make quite some damage there."

I gulped and laughed nervously. It's collateral damage so it should be okay, right?

"Nobu, behind you!" I shouted as I saw one of the other ninjas get up from the ground and swing his sword at the boy. But before he could reach him, he literally fell apart. Behind him Ayano appeared, blood spraying from the still rotating pendulums that she used to cut the man in half.

"Time you showed up." Nobu said to her with a smirk before he activated his Kekkei Gankai on both his fists, turning them to steel. Then he started to pummel the still unconscious ninja on the ground to prevent them form getting up ever again.

"I'm so glad you're here." I admitted to Ayano a tired smile on my face.

"Don't worry. We'll escort you to wherever you plan on going." Nobu answered for her, a knowing grin on his face.

I laughed and thanked my teammates as they led me through the streets, killing everything that got in their way. I wondered how these two could still be considered genin, they were freaking killing machines. Good thing the dizziness from before was gone so I had no problem getting back my orientation.

We reached the outer wall of the village. Nobu punched in the face of the last Oto-nin that was trying to stop us. The blood dripped from his fists and a mad smirk crept on his face. Nobu on a killing spree is really something you wouldn't want to happen. Maybe it was for the best his opponents all quit before their fight.

But just as we wanted to pass the wall, a giant tail crushed into the concrete in front of us.

"Oh holy sh-"

"That's some really big snake!" I said impressed incidentally interrupting Nobu in his swearing. He abruptly punched the giant reptile with full force but didn't even leave a scratch on the enormous body.

"That one's gonna take a while." he growled before his craze smirk reappeared on his face.

I took out a kunai, ready to assist my comrades, but Ayano stepped in front of me and nodded to the direction of the forest behind the wall.

"Ayano's right." Nobu translated for me "You go and catch up to your boyfriend. We'll take on that oversized slow worm."

"Thanks." I replied smiling and jumped to the top of the wall, then turned around to shout down to them.

"And he's not my boyfriend!"

Then I faced the forest and finally took up pursuit of my friends.

While running one small question popped up in my head.

"Who exactly did me mean with 'my boyfriend'?"

* * *

Unfortunately that chapter wasn't that funny but my brain fails at jokes at the moment. The next will be more serious as well but after that I'll try my best to make it more funny again.

If you have any questions, complaints etc. just leave me a pm, I try to reply as soon and possible.

Now I wish you a good night (or day, depending on when you're reading this) and I'll see you next time hopefully ;)


	25. Gaara vs Naruto

Ahoi! What? An update? Really? Yes, my friends, I actually updated, even though I wanted to keep this story on hiatus! Why? I can tell you several reasons:

1. Since this story still get's so much attention even though I wasn't updating for what seemed an eternity I just couldn't stand ignoring it any longer and HAD to update this!

2. I'm going nuts right now since exams are nearing and I desperately needed a distraction from learning before I lost the rest of my mind because of the randomness that is my physics professor!

3. Because I frigging can! Ha!

And thank you all for your wonderful review that make my story feel so loved! Yes, my story has feelings and you awesome people that stop by to read it are flattering it! You all are so awesome!

Now here's the next chapter, enjoy!

* * *

**Sins and Sunshine**

Chapter 25: Gaara vs Naruto

**'That way'** Kumiho exclaimed mentally pointing to a certain direction.

_'You sure?'_ I questioned her skeptically. For some time now I was running through the woods only listening to Kumiho's instructions on where to head to and still didn't find any of my friends.

**'I can feel their chakra being close. You're almost there.'**

And she was right.

In front of me the forest opened up to a small clearing, that was more of a little patch of grass that provided a little gap in the dense treetops to let a few rays of sunlight leak through.

And there they were. Up on the branches of the sturdy trees Sasuke and Gaara battled each other.

Gaara stood hunched over on one of the thicker branches. One arm and half his face were already turned monster including a big tail that seemed to emerge from the bottom of his oversized gourd. A transformation I wouldn't mind, really, if it wasn't for the saliva that was dripping from his monster half face. Saliva can ruin even the cutest of faces!

On a different branch stood Sasuke panting heavily and curse seal activated. He was about to collapse from exhaustion and Gaara jumped off the branch about to land the final blow.

Reacting instantly I did the same and luckily made it in time to get Sasuke out the way of the attack. But I miscalculated the weight of the ravenhead so I made a little crash landing on the ground, trying to shield the boy in my arm from the hard impact.

"Ouch.." I grumbled and held my aching shoulder, then looked at the boy that now lay on ground next to me.

"Sasuke-kun." I whispered worriedly and examined his current state. Looked like he used up all his chakra, nothing to serious.

The boy stirred upon hearing his name.

"M-Minari... why..." he managed to say before he convulsed in pain.

"Hold on." I told him then turned around to face Gaara, at least what was left of him.

"Gaara. Please stop it." I pleaded with determination in my voice.

"Kill! I'll kill you!" I screamed and laughed maniacally. I shuddered from the bloodlust he was emanating. Did Shukaku already take over his mind?

He headed straight at us with his monster arm ready to strike. I hovered over Sasuke protectively and braced myself for the attack that never came.

In the last moment Naruto appeared and kicked the redhead away. The blonde then landed right in front of me and pointed at Gaara in his half monster form.

"Oi, Minari-chan. Who the hell is that?"

"Although his appearance changed, this is Gaara." A doggy explained after he landed right next to me together with Sakura.

"Holy cow! A speaking dog!" I yelled shocked and started to poke the side of the dog as if that would make him speak more words. But instead he grumpily glared straight ahead, a vein popping on his forehead.

"Speak doggy, speak." I chanted and kept poking him till he couldn't take it any longer and batted my hand away. I pouted at this harsh treatment and turned to Sakura that was hovering over Sasuke, worry written all over her face.

"What happened?" she asked with fear in her voice as she stared at the activated curse seal on the ravenhead's neck.

"I just arrived a few moments before you. So all I can say is that he used up all his chakra and that the curse seal inflicts him pain." I explained obligingly. Yes I actually answered one of Pinky's question without sarcasm or taunt, that's how serious the situation was right now!

Like on cue Sasuke got another fit of pain and even caught up blood. Sakura and I tried to steady him. Then suddenly Naruto shouted at us as Gaara completely ignored the blonde and rushed towards the suffering Uchiha in an attempt to kill.

"Die, Uchiha Sasuke!"

The pinkhaired girl and I acted in unison as we both stood up with weapon in hand and readied ourself for the attack to protect our teammate.

Strangely enough this made Gaara flinch for a moment, but unluckily that didn't stop him from coming at us. By a swing of his monstrous arm Sakura got batted away like a fly and crashed hard with the head against a tree going down unconscious. I didn't fare any better. The transforming boy pinned me with same arm against a tree, the impact pressing the air out my lungs and making my flinch in pain at the same time.

My head got fuzzy and the sand claw around my body kept squeezing my lungs making it harder for me to breath.

Gaara held his pain in pain and looked like he was remembering something. When he was back in the present he was sweating and panting.

"What's the matter. Weren't you gonna retreat?" he then mocked the blonde.

I could hear Naruto and Gaare exchanging a few more words but my head became too fuzzy to make any sense out of them. Naruto rushing at the redhead was the last thing I saw before my world finally went black.

* * *

"_Gaara-kun, what did you do?" I questioned the little redheaded boy in front of me with a disapproving look._

"_I... I lost control... It.. It was..." he stuttered, tears running down his face as he stared at me with wide open eyes._

_The sand floating around him slowly fell back down to the ground as the little boy managed to steady his hectic breathing. His bottom lip trembled violently and I couldn't help but to glomp the little 5-year old that was hardly any taller than my own 5-year old self. _

"_There, there." I cooed and patted his head._

_Behind us a boy around our age, maybe one or two years older, lay on the sand covered ground. Not moving. Not breathing. A puddle of blood forming around his lifeless body._

"_H-He threw stones at me. And.. And wouldn't stop calling me names." little Gaara told me still crying into my chest. _

"_I know... I saw it." I replied calmly._

"_I just wanted him to stop!"_

"_Of course. After all he was really mean to you."_

"_The sand attacked on its own! I.. I didn't mean to.."_

"_Gaara-kun."_

"_Y-Yeah?" _

_He hesitantly looked up, teal eyes meeting hazel ones._

"_Are you sorry for what you did?" I asked him. He nodded eagerly. _

"_Than it's okay." I replied with a smile._

"_Mommy always said it's important to realize that you did something wrong. Then you can learn from your faults and become a better human." I recited what my mom had told me some time ago when I stole the doll of another girl and felt bad about it later that day. Totally similar to the current situation, I know._

"_I'm really sorry!" the boy kept crying "I didn't want to hurt you!"_

"_It's okay. I forgive you." I answered still smiling as the boy clutched my arm that held a sand inflicted injury almost as long as my forearm._

* * *

Slowly I woke up and found the pressure on my chest gone. What had happened? And why did I seem to only dream of my past whenever I passed out lately? Why did I even pass out that much that I could already make this sort of assumption? Isn't my life wonderful lately!

"W-What happened..." I asked drowsily as I struggled to get up.

"... Naruto won." A voice explained.

I turned around to see Sasuke next to me who had answered. I was lying on the ground next to a still unconscious Pinky.

Then I noticed Naruto and Gaara lying on the ground on the other side of the clearing that was now significantly bigger then before, both unable to move. But still Naruto kept himself pushing forward towards the redhead with his chin.

I gave Sasuke a meaningful look. He nodded, then gave the dog instructions to take care of Sakura before he helped me up and we headed to the two boys.

"That's enough Naruto." Sasuke said as he came to a halt next to the blonde. "Sakura and Minari are alright now."

While Sasuke stood besides the blonde I wobbled over to Gaara to kneel down in front of him.

"Gaara." I whispered and cradled his head in my lap.

"Minari..." he replied barely able to look at me. I never saw him have such a tired expression on his face before. It actually looked kinda cute.

"I..."

"It's okay, Gaara. I know."

"I'm sorry..."

"...It's okay. I forgive you." I answered smiling and hushed him.

"Gaara!" his siblings yelled as they appeared next to him.

"That's enough. It's over." the boy stated.

I handed him over to Kankuro then walked back to stand next to Sasuke.

"Minari..." Gaara said again looking at me. I flashed him a sweet smile.

"When I get to go to Suna again some day, I'll make sure to visit you."

Then the sand siblings vanished and I turned to the blonde who was now unconscious.

"Well done, Naru-kun. Just as expected from the future Hokage.", I whispered softly wiping a blond strand of hair out of his face.

Then I faced the ravenhead.

"You okay? You looked horrible when I found you." I stated with a mocking smile.

"Che." he retorted with a small smirk on his face. "Says the one who was unconscious during the whole fight."

I huffed and flashed him a sheepish grin.

The boy looked over to where Sakura was then back to Naruto.

"Let's get them back to the village." he stated and picked up the blonde. I nodded , then walked back to where Sakura was lying and did the same with her.

"Pretty weak if you faint that easily." the Uchiha sprout stated as we were on the way back.

"I want to see you getting almost squeezed to death. Let's see who's weak then." I retorted and stuck my tongue out at him. Which got me a smirk in return.

* * *

Meanwhile in a certain building, in a certain storage room, in a certain locker...

"H-Hello?"

…..

"I-Is it over yet? C-Can I come out?"

…..

The shy girl hesitantly pushed open the door of the locker glancing around.

"D-Did they forget about me?" she wondered out loud, tears forming in the edge of her eye and she sniffled lightly.

One of the mops from inside her hiding spot tipped over startling the shy Hyuga girl. She eyed the cleaning tool that was now right on eye level with her, the bundle of strings looking exactly like her current hairdo.

"I'll definitely let my hair grow out!" she cried out, tears falling down her face.

* * *

And another chapter finished!

So Gaara's finally able to become a better person. What does that mean for Minari's future? Hmmmm...

If you still have some spare time on hand why not use it to review? That would make this little author really happy!


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